BOOKS  IN  CAMP,  TRENCH  AND  HOSPITAL 

BY 

THEODORE  WESLEY  KOCH 
Revised  and  Enlarged 


LIBRARY 

Or 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


1. 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8. 


The  War  Library 

The  Camps  Library 

The  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 

T he  British  Prisoners  of  War  Book  Scheme 
( Educational) 

The  Military  Hospital,  Endell  Street,  London 

Letters  from  the  Front 

Pictures  and  Poetry 

The  Bible  in  the  Trenches 


Reprinted  from  the  Library  Journal,  July,  August  and  October,  1917. 


library 

UNIVERSITY  of^  ILLIMO! 


Drawn  by  Edgar  IV right 


BOOKS  IN  CAMP,  TRENCH  AND  HOSPITAL 


BY 


THEODORE  WESLEY  KOCH 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017,  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/booksincamptrenc00koch_0 


01^.^  \ 

V-TWoV 

\°*v\ 

Ct>w  LIBRARY 

PREFATORY  NOTE  o.  TE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


Most  of  the  following  articles  were 
written  during  my  long  stay  in  London, 
and  so  bear  the  stamp  of  their  English 
origin.  This  explains  why  more  was  not 
said  in  the  section  devoted  to  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  about  the  work  of  the  young  men 
sent  out  from  America.  A few  anecdotes 
and  facts  that  have  recently  come  to  my 
attention  are  added  here. 

A German  soldier  and  his  son  had  come 
all  the  way  from  Verdun  to  the  Russian 
front,  where  they  were  wounded  and  cap- 
tured. They  lay  in  adjoining  beds  in  a 
military  hospital,  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  fur- 
nished them  with  a copy  of  “Oliver  Twist’’ 
and  a Russian  grammar  which  they  were 
planning  to  study  together.  In  the  same 
ward  was  a young  Berlin  professor  who 
had  done  research  work  in  the  British 
Museum.  He  brooded  a great  deal  over 
his  fate,  but  a gift  of  the  “Christmas 
Carol”  and  a Russian  grammar  changed 
somewhat  the  tenor  of  his  thought. 

Count  L , a prisoner  in  a Russian 

camp,  asked  for  a good  American  story, 
and  the  secretary  brought  him  “Black 
Rock.”  The  Count  pronounced  it  to  be  one 
of  the  best  novels  he  had  ever  read,  and 
he  asked  the  secretary  to  send  him  ten 
others  of  the  same  kind  from  America 
“after  the  war.”  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  man 
having  occasion  to  go  to  Petrograd  a few 
days  later,  purchased  these  books  by  Ralph 
Connor,  Gene  Stratton  Porter,  and  Jack 
London,  and  gave  them  to  the  Count.  The 
secretary  says  that  no  other  volumes  ever 
received  such  joyful  reading.  Since  then 
they  have  been  presented  to  the  prison  li- 
brary where  they  are  in  great  demand. 
Other  books  of  the  same  class  were  latei 
sent  to  the  prison. 

An  American  Y.  M.  C.  A.  secretary  in 
a Russian  prison  camp  borrowed  a Koran 
and  the  other  books  needed  by  the  Mo- 
hammedans for  a service  which  he  ar- 
ranged for  them. 

A soldier  wrote  from  the  trenches  to  the 
London  Headquarters  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. : 
“We  sit  in  our  dug-outs  and  just  think ! 
I wonder  if  you  could  send  some  books 
and  magazines  over  here.” 

A man  in  Egypt,  begging  for  magazines, 


said  that  he  didn’t  wonder  that  the  children 
of  Israel  grumbled  when  they  went  that 
way ! 

A Y.  M.  C.  A.  worker  in  France  writes: 
“We  never  can  secure  enough  reading  mat- 
ter to  while  away  the  hours  in  the  long 
French  train  journeys.” 

The  magazines  which  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
has  been  able  to  supply  the  troops  have  fre- 
quently been  cut  into  sections  so  as  to 
make  them  go  around.  Even  the  printed 
wrapping  paper  in  which  parcels  are  sent 
is  smoothed  out  and  read  as  literature. 
If  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  workers  could  get  the 
thousands  of  magazines  and  “seven  pen- 
nies” left  lying  about  in  clubs,  railway 
carriages,  and  private  houses,  it  would  en- 
able battalions  of  men  to  forget  for  a few 
moments  the  hardships,  the  risks,  and  the 
monotony  of  active  service.  A “seven- 
penny”  book  was  given  a soldier  by  a 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  worker  as  he  went  by  train 
to  the  front  line.  It  was  read  by  every 
man  in  the  platoon.  The  man  was  wound- 
ed and  took  the  book  to  the  hospital  where 
it  was  read  by  every  man  in  the  ward. 
Now  that  he  has  regained  possession  of  it, 
he  intends  to  keep  it  for  the  rest  of  his 
life. 

English  booksellers  report  a famine  of 
sevenpenny  and  shilling  books  because  of 
the  demand  for  them  from  the  trenches. 
Seven  million  copies  are  said  to  have  been 
sent  to  the  front. 

The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  trying  to  organize 
a collection  of  books  and  magazines  in 
different  districts  throughout  Great  Britain 
and  is  instituting  Red  Triangle  Magazine 
and  Book  Clubs  which  will  collect  and 
forward  a weekly  or  fortnightly  supply  to 
the  Library  Department  in  London. 

In  five  months  the  Red  Triangle  Library 
has  sent  away  83,640  books  and  magazines : 


To  Home  Camps  26,750 

To  France  45, 190 

To  Overseas  Bases  11,700 


The  Overseas  Bases  include  Mesopotam- 
ia, Egypt,  Salonica,  Nairobi,  Malta  and 
Calcutta. 

Three  thousand  books  and  magazines 
are  sent  to  France  every  week,  and  each 
district  in  France  receives  in  regular  rota- 


4 


tion  as  many  bales  as  there  are  huts  in 
that  district.  The  round  has  now  been 
made  twice  since  the  Library  opened  on 
Feb.  12th,  1917.  There  is  also  a Library 
Reserve  at  Abbeville  for  the  supply  of 
particular  or  individual  requests  from  hut- 
leaders. 

Mr.  Oliver  McCowen  writes  from  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  Headquarters  in  France.  “It 
is  a real  pleasure  now  to  go  round  our  huts 
and  find  quite  respectable  libraries  in 
process  of  formation.  All  our  leaders 
speak  enthusiastically  of  the  service  you 
are  rendering.” 

A hut  leader,  also  from  France,  reports 
that  the  magazines  and  books  are  read  in 
the  hut  and  taken  to  the  men’s  quarters, 
and  afterwards  passed  all  round  the  camp. 
In  isolation  camps  the  books  are  described 
as  a Godsend. 


Another  letter  of  acknowledgment  says 
“the  men  hailed  with  delighted  gratitude 
this  proof  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.’s  interest  and 
sympathy — as  soon  as  I undid  the  string  I 
had  a crowd  of  men  round  me  to  see  what 
books  I had  got.  I am  most  grateful  for 
so  much  up-to-date  material.” 

“Since  the  war,  the  Association  has 
shown  its  youth,  its  manhood,  and  its 
Christianity  by  rising  to  a great  opportu- 
nity, and  there  are  literally  millions  of 
young  soldiers  who  will  be  eternally  grate- 
ful to  it,  not  negatively  for  what  it  is  not, 
but  positively  for  what  it  is  and  for  what 
it  has  done  for  them,”  says  Geoffrey  Gor- 
don in  “Papers  from  Picardy,  by  two 
chaplains.” 

T.  W.  K. 

Washington,  D.  C., 

September  14,  1917. 


BOOKS  IN  CAMP,  TRENCH  AND  HOSPITAL 

By  Theodore  Wesley  Koch,  Chief  of  the  Order  Division,  Library  of  Congress 


Lord  Northcliffe  in  a message  to  Amer- 
icans had  some  things  to  say  as  to  what  the 
American  soldiers  would  need  in  the  way 
of  food  and  equipment  if  brought  to  France 
or  Belgium.  “But  your  boy  wants  more 
than  these  things,”  said  he.  “Has  it  ever 
occurred  to  you  that  he  must  be  amused? 
He  must  have  moving  pictures,  talking 
machines,  books,  magazines,  home  news- 
papers, each  of  them  occupying  valuable 
tonnage  and  ships.” 

Books  and  magazines  are  being  supplied 
in  great  numbers  to  the  British  troops 
thru  four  great  agencies:  (i)  The  Brit- 
ish Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St.  John  War 
Library;  (2)  The  Camps  Library;  (3)  The 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  and 
(4)  The  British  Prisoners  of  War  Book 
Scheme  (Educational).  In  the  following- 
paper  an  attempt  is  made  to  give  a brief 
history  of  each  of  these  branches  of  a com- 
mon work  for  the  wholesome  entertainment 
and  mental  well-being  of  the  troops,  to 
show  how  the  field  has  been  divided  among 
the  different  organizations,  and  to  give  evi- 
dence of  the  splendid  results  accomplished. 
The  writer  wishes  to  acknowledge  his  in- 
debtedness to  the  promoters  of  the  various 
schemes  for  their  kindness  in  furnishing 
him  with  his  source  material,  in  allowing 
him  to  draw  freely  on  what  they  themselves 
have  written,  in  granting  him  interviews 
and  in  reading  over  the  account  as  here  pre- 
sented, thus  giving  it  their  imprimatur. 

With  this  paper,  I am  sending  to  the 
Louisville  meeting  of  the  American  Library 
Association  an  exhibit  made  up  of  speci- 
mens of  the  kind  of  books  and  magazines 
which  have  proved  most  useful  in  entertain- 
ing and  instructing  the  men.  A first  glance 
at  this  material  may  cause  a shock  to  some 
librarians  with  settled  convictions  on  book 
selection,  but  I would  remind  them  that  I 
have  not  tried  to  collect  specimens  of  the 
standard  authors  sent  out  in  large  numbers 
to  the  troops.  I have  contented  myself 
rather  with  the  forwarding  of  literature  of 
known  popularity  with  Tommy  Atkins  and 
Jack  Tar,  but  unknown  to  most  Americans. 
Let  this  last  remark  not  be  taken  to  refer  to 


the  various  parts  of  the  Bible,  the  Prayer 
Book  and  Hymnal,  of  which  I have  sent 
numerous  editions  issued  for  the  forces. 

I hope  that  some  organization  will  look 
after  the  needs  of  American  troops  equally 
well.  No  time  should  be  lost  in  interesting 
those  who  have  the  means,  the  leisure  and 
the  executive  ability  to  see  that  similar 
work  is  started  at  once  in  the  United  States. 
Co-operation  or  affiliation  with  the  British 
organizations  should  be  considered. 

I.  THE  WAR  LIBRARY 

The  night  after  war  had  been  declared, 
Mrs.  H.  M.  Gaskell  lay  awake  wondering 
how  she  could  best  help  in  the  coming 
struggle.  Recalling  how  much  a certain 
book  she  had  read  during  a recent  illness 
had  meant  to  her,  she  realized  the  value 
of  providing  literature  for  the  sick  and 
wounded.  A few  days  later  she  dined  with 
some  friends  and  talked  over  this  opportu- 
nity for  service,  with  the  result  that  Lady 
Battersea  decided  to  lend  her  splendid 
mansion,  Surrey  House,  Marble  Arch,  for 
the  work.  Lord  Haldane,  who  was  War 
Minister  at  the  time,  approved  the  plan 
officially,  and  Sir  Alfred  Sloggett,  then 
head  of  the  R.  A.  M.  C.,  gave  his  official 
sanction.  The  work  was  no  sooner  under 
way  than  the  Admiralty  asked  whether  the 
new  organization  would  be  willing  to  sup- 
ply the  Navy,  the  sound  men  as  well  as  the 
sick.  Mrs.  Gaskell’s  brother,  Mr.  Beresford 
Melville,  entered  into  the  work  with  en- 
thusiasm and  gave  it  financial  support.  The 
call  for  books  was  the  first  appeal  of  the 
War,  and  newspapers  were  glad  to  give 
their  space  and  support  free  to  the  letters 
asking  for  reading  matter  for  both  the  sick 
and  wounded.  To  the  surprise  of  the  or- 
ganizers not  only  parcels  and  boxes,  but 
vanloads  of  books  were  delivered  to  Surrey 
House.  Hastily  improvised  book  cases  rose 
quickly  to  the  ceilings  of  the  rooms  on  the 
ground  floor,  then  up  the  wide  stairway, 
filling  three  immense  rooms  and  crowding 
the  corridors.  It  was  impossible  for  the 
overworked  volunteers  to  keep  up  with  this 
unexpected  volume  of  gifts.  Dr.  C.  T. 


6 


Hagberg  Wright  of  the  London  Library 
was  appealed  to  and  when  he  came  to  Sur- 
rey House  and  saw  the  multitude  of  books, 
he  decided  to  call  upon  his  assistants.  With 
five  of  his  staff  he  set  to  work.  It  was 
necessary  to  hire  empty  wagons  to  stand  at 
the  door  for  the  refuse,  of  which  there  was 
a huge  quantity,  for  many  people  had  seized 
this  as  an  opportunity  to  clean  out  their 
rubbish  piles  and  credit  themselves  with 
doing  a charitable  turn  at  the  same  time. 
Old  parish  magazines  were  sent  in  by  tens 
of  thousands,  only  to  be  passed  on  to  the 
waiting  wagons.  To  offset  these,  however, 
there  were  over  a million  well  selected 
books,  including  rare  editions  of  standard 
authors.  The  latter  were  put  to  one  side 
for  sale  and  the  money  thus  received  was 
invested  in  the  kind  of  books  most  needed. 
While  one  set  of  helpers  was  unpacking, 
another  was  sending  off  carefully  selected 
boxes  of  books  to  small  permanent  libraries 
in  the  Military  and  Naval  Hospitals  from 
lists  furnished  by  the  Admiralty  and  War 
Office.  The  permanent  hospitals  were  sup- 
plied with  a library  before  the  wounded 
arrived,  and  as  the  war  area  expanded  the 
War  Library  followed  with  literature.  Ad- 
vertisements were  inserted  in  American  and 
Canadian  newspapers  with  the  result  that 
many  publishers  sent  most  acceptable  gifts 
from  across  the  water.  Later,  large  con- 
signments of  literature  came  from  South 
Africa,  Australia,  Madeira,  the  Canary  Isl- 
ands and  New  Zealand.  English  publishers 
were  more  than  generous.  One  publisher 
sent  600  beautifully  printed  copies  of  six  of 
the  best  novels  in  the  English  language, 
bound  in  dark  blue  and  red  washable  buck- 
ram. The  English  and  Foreign  Bible  So- 
ciety has  given  eighty  thousand  copies  of 
little  khaki  covered  Gospels,  printed  on  thin 
paper  with  the  Red  Cross  or  the  Union 
Jack  decorating  the  cover. 

In  November,  1914,  the  Admiralty  asked 
the  War  Library  organization  to  supply  the 
sailors  in  the  North  Sea  Fleet  at  the  rate 
of  a book  a man.  Not  only  was  this  done, 
but  boxes  of  books  were  sent  to  all  the 
guards  around  the  coasts  of  the  British 
Isles,  the  Shetland  and  Orkney  Isles,  and 
the  West  Coast  of  Ireland.  When  the 
Camps  Library  was  organized  by  Sir  Ed- 
ward Ward  and  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Anstruther, 


for  the  strong  and  healthy  soldiers  in  camps 
and  trenches,  the  originators  of  the  War 
Library  met  with  the  promoters  of  the  new 
scheme  and  discussed  a division  of  labor. 
The  field  of  work  was  increasing  to  such  an 
extent  that  it  was  agreed  that  the  War 
Library  should  look  after  the  “unfit”  in  the 
Army  and  Navy,  while  the  new  organiza- 
tion would  take  care  of  the  “fit.”  This 
plan  has  worked  very  well,  but  alas ! as 
Mrs.  Gaskell  reports,  “as  the  wide-flung 
battle-field  extended,  the  supply  of  books 
dwindled.  We  were  in  despair.  The 
papers,  filled  with  other  appeals,  could  only 
insert  ours  by  payment,  and  money,  too, 
had  become  very  scarce.  Meanwhile,  hos- 
pitals in  France  doubled.  Sick  in  Lemnos, 
Malta,  Gallipoli,  Egypt,  grew  in  numbers 
to  an  alarming  extent;  books  were  asked 
for,  cabled  for,  demanded,  implored.  Our 
hearts  were  indeed  heavy  laden.”  Relief 
came  thru  the  action  of  Mr.  Herbert  Sam- 
uel, then  Postmaster  General,  who,  after 
paying  a visit  to  the  camps  and  seeing  life 
in  the  trenches,  decided  that  the  Post  Of- 
fice should  help  in  the  work  of  forwarding 
reading  material  for  the  men.  Then  the 
Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St.  John  was 
asked  to  affiliate  the  War  Library  scheme 
with  its  organization.  In  October,  1915, 
it  not  only  agreed  to  do  this  but  became 
financially  responsible  for  the  undertaking, 
the  promoters  of  the  latter  promising  in  re- 
turn to  supply  the  literature  that  they  and 
their  hospitals  require — which  means  con- 
siderably over  200,000  books  and  magazines 
a year. 

When  the  beds  at  Gallipoli  were  being 
rapidly  filled  with  the  sick  and  wounded,  a 
cable  would  come  to  Surrey  House : “Send 
25,000  books  at  once,  light  and  good  print.” 
Perhaps  the  day  before  Malta  had  cabled 
for  10,000  similar  books.  The  demand 
seemed  to  grow  by  leaps  and  bounds.  No 
hospital  at  home  or  abroad  asks  without 
receiving  the  full  quota  requested.  The  li- 
brary is  now  supplying  East  Africa,  Bom- 
bay, Mesopotamia,  Egypt,  Salonika  and 
Malta  monthly  with  thousands  of  books  and 
magazines.  Fortnightly  parcels  go  to  the 
hospitals  in  France  and  to  the  Cross  Chan- 
nel Hospital  Service.  To-day  the  organiza- 
tion is  supplying  approximately  1810  hos- 
pitals in  Great  Britain,  262  in  France,  58 


7 


naval  hospitals  and  70  hospital  ships.  The 
transport  hospital  ships  are  replenished 
every  voyage. 

Those  whom  typhoid  and  dysentery  had 
weakened  were  not  able  to  hold  books  at 
all,  and  needed  pictures  instead.  Mr. 
Rudyard  Kipling  had  foreseen  this  need 
and  asked  those  in  charge  to  supply  strong 
brown  paper  scrapbooks  filled  but  not 
crowded  with  pictures.  His  suggestion 
was  immediately  adopted.  These  scrap- 
books are  made  from  sheets  43  x 27  inches 
folded  three  times  forming  a book  of  six- 
teen pages,  about  14  x 11  inches,  tied  to- 
gether at  the  back  with  a bow  of  bright  rib- 
bon. On  the  outside  an  attractive  colored 
picture  is  pasted.  The  inside  pages  are  filled 
with  entertaining  pictures,  both  in  black  and 
white  and  in  color,  interspersed  with  little 
jokes,  anecdotes  and  very  short  stories 
from  such  weeklies  as  Punch,  London 
Opinion,  and  Answers.  Short  poems  are 
found  to  be  acceptable  space  fillers. 
Comic  postcards  are  used,  but  no  Christ- 
mas cards.  Pictures  are  always  placed 
straight  before  the  eye  so  that  the  invalid 
may  not  have  to  turn  the  scrapbook 
around  in  order  to  see  them,  for  many  a 
patient  is  too  weak  even  to  lift  his  hand, 
and  must  await  the  coming  of  a nurse  in 
order  to  know  what  the  next  page  has  in 
store  for  him.  Volunteer  makers  of  these 
aids  to  cheer  are  urged  to  remember  that 
they  are  for  grown  men,  not  for  children^ 
They  have  been  furnished  in  large  num- 
bers by  a generous  public,  and  have  been 
found  invaluable.  Fresh  scrapbooks  are 
supplied  to  the  hospital  ships  each  voyage. 
A young  soldier,  just  recovering  from 
typhoid,  came  to  the  War  Library  on  his 
return  from  Egypt  and  was  asked  to  look 
about  and  tell  what  he  would  have  liked 
best  during  his  convalescence.  “I  was  too 
tired  to  read,”  said  he,  “but  I would  have 
given  a lot  for  one  of  those  picture 
books.”  This  type  of  convalescent  can 
use  games  to  advantage  and  so  the  War 
Library  has  started  a Games  Department. 
There  is  a never  ceasing  demand  for  play- 
ing cards,  dominoes,  draughts,  and  good 
jigsaw  puzzles — even  with  a few  pieces 
missing.  Anything  that  can  be  packed 
flat  is  acceptable. 

As  to  the  kind  of  books  the  soldiers  ask 


for,  let  us  have  Mrs.  Gaskell’s  experi- 
ence in  her  own  words:  “Perhaps  your 
eyes  will  be  opened,  as  mine  were,  to  new 
worlds  of  literature,”  said  she  when  inter- 
viewed on  the  subject.  “I  confess  I was 
quite  ignorant  of  these  books  before  the 
war.  They  are  exciting,  absorbing,  sensa- 
tional. Detective  stories  are  shouted  for; 
so  is  the  ‘Bull-dog  breed/  ‘The  Red  Seal' 
and  ‘The  Adventure’  series;  and  all  sorts 
of  penny  novelettes.  Of  course,  all  seven- 
penny,  sixpenny  and  shilling  editions  are 
invaluable  from  their  handy  size  and  good 
print.  And  now  for  the  favorite  authors 
— they  are  nearly  all  in  the  sixpenny  and 
sevenpenny  series,  and  come  in  grand  pro- 
cession of  favor,  Nat  Gould,  Jack  London, 
Rudyard  Kipling,  William  LeQueux,  Ridg- 
well  Cullum,  Charles  Garvice,  Guy  Boothby, 
A.  Conan  Doyle,  W.  W.  Jacobs,  Florence 
Barclay,  Ian  Hay,  Cutcliffe  Hyne,  ‘Q/ 
John  Oxenham,  H.  A.  Vachell,  Edgar 
Wallace,  Rider  Haggard,  Dumas,  and 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson.  All  these,  multi- 
plied ten  thousand  times  by  the  printing 
press,  go  out  to  cheer  the  men-folk  in  their 
suffering  and  convalescence.  They  are  a 
party  of  perpetual  entertainers  who  make 
laughter  and  romance  to  spring  up  from 
the  battle  dust.  They  are  balm  and  glad- 
ness. 

“All  detective  stories — good  detective 
stories — are  hailed  with  joy.  Sherlock 
Holmes  is  a physician — remember  that.  But 
lest  you  feel  that  this  ephemeral  class  of 
books  is  all  that  is  asked  for,  I must  say 
that  poetry  is  in  demand,  and,  as  you  will 
see  later,  the  immortals  are  wooed  down 
from  their  Olympian  heights  to  make  cheer 
among  mortals.  The  first  and  second  six- 
penny series  of  the  ‘Hundred  Best  Poems’ 
go  out  in  generous  instalments;  so  do  the 
‘Hundred  Best  Love  Poems.’  Shakespeare, 
greatest  of  patriots,  visits  the  hospitals — 
he  is  ever  young,  tho  three  hundred  years 
old — but  we  prefer  him  in  single  plays;  a 
complete  volume  is  too  bulky,  perhaps  too 
formidable.  A book  must  not  be  too 
formidable  or  sombre  to  look  at;  it’s  like  a 
cyclist  with  a long  hill  in  front  of  him — the 
sight  makes  him  tired. 

“There’s  a demand  among  the  men  for 
handbooks  on  trade-handicraft  subjects; 
and  maps,  such  as  the  Strand  War  Map, 


8 


are  most  acceptable.  I know  a gentleman 
whose  leisure  moments  are  filled  by  turn- 
ing over  the  leaves  of  Bradshaw.  He 
enjoys  it  thoroly;  it’s  like  counting  the 
beads  on  a rosary;  station  after  station 
will  remind  him  of  journeyings  to  and 
fro  in  the  land  and  bring  back  adventures 
which  made  them  memorable  to  him.  Well, 
I suppose  it  is  in  that  manner  that  the 
wounded  soldiers  enjoy  maps — and  natur- 
ally they  like  to  follow  the  war  from  their 
resting  beds. 

“As  for  the  officers,  they  ask  for  new 
six  shilling  novels  and  all  kinds  of  lighter 
biographies,  what  Robert  Louis  Stevenson 
calls  ‘heroic  gossip.’  Here  are  particular 
books  which  I may  name:  ‘Garibaldi  and 
the  Thousand’  (Trevelyan),  ‘Beatrice 
d’Este’  (Miss  Cartwright),  and  ‘Portraits 
and  Sketches’  (Edmund  Gosse).  Travel 
books  of  all  sorts  are  acclaimed;  so,  too, 
are  the  light-to-hold  editions  of  Thack- 
eray, Dickens,  E.  A.  Poe,  Kipling  and 
Meredith.  The  reviews  are  appreciated, 
especially  Blackwood's,  The  English  Re- 
view and  the  Cornhill.  These  are  price- 
less for  the  sick.” 

Mrs.  Gaskell  says  that  the  workers  are 
encouraged  to  renewed  effort  by  the  count- 
less letters  they  receive  from  all  over  the 
war  area.  “I  don’t  know  how  we  should  live 
without  your  books,”  writes  one  wounded 
soldier.  “I  am  just  waiting  until  my  pal 
has  finished  to  get  hold  of  his  book,”  writes 
another.  “We  have  no  books,”  is  the  appeal 
of  an  isolated  group  of  wounded  in  Egypt. 
“All  we  have  had  to  read  here  was  a scrap 
of  the  advertisement  page  of  a newspaper 
picked  up  on  the  desert,  and  on  it  we  saw 
that  you  send  books  to  sick  and  wounded. 
Please  hurry  up  and  send  some.  The  flies 
are  awful.” 

An  officer  in  charge  of  a Casualty  Clear- 
ing Hospital  writes  of  the  great  joy  in 
camp  when  he  distributed  the  contents  of 
a parcel  among  the  patients.  Every  man 
in  the  hospital  had  something  to  read  and 
for  many  hours  the  monotony  of  hospital 
life  was  greatly  relieved.  A popular  paper- 
bound  novel  by  Nat  Gould  lasts  less  than 
a week.  The  men  hide  it  for  fear  of  its 
being  taken  away.  They  pass  it  surrepti- 
tiously to  a comrade  in  the  next  bed,  or 
carry  it  in  their  pockets  like  a treasure 
trove.  It  is  literally  read  to  pieces  and  in 


a week  there  is  sure  to  be  a request  for 
another  Nat  Gould — a writer  probably  un- 
known to  American  librarians,  but  of  whose 
books,  we  are  told  by  the  publishers,  over 
ten  million  copies  have  been  sold.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Athenaeum,  he  is  the  most  popu- 
lar of  living  writers,  and  among  the  great 
of  the  past,  Dumas  alone  surpasses  him. 

In  January,  1917,  a New  Books  Depart- 
ment was  opened  in  connection  with  the 
War  Library.  To  provide  the  necessary 
accommodations  the  servants’  quarters  and 
stables  of  Surrey  House  were  utilized.  Each 
room  is  filled  with  a particular  class  of 
reading  matter — as  novels,  books  of  travel, 
religious  books,  magazines.  A recent  re- 
port shows  that  in  one  month  77,000  new 
books  and  14,000  magazines  were  pur- 
chased. This  important  and  difficult  phase 
of  the  work  is  in  charge  of  an  American 
woman — Miss  Knobloch,  sister  of  Edward 
Knobloch,  the  playwright. 

“I  received  the  book  you  have  so  kindly 
sent  me  on  practical  gas  fitting  and  thank- 
you  very  much  for  same,”  writes  one  who 
had  put  in  a special  request.  “It  deals  with 
everything  you  could  wish  to  know  on  the 
subject.  I am  sure  it  will  be  a great  help 
to  me  when  the  time  comes  for  my  dis- 
charge from  the  Army.” 

The  routine  handling  of  this  material  is 
as  follows:  After  unpacking,  the  books  are 
stamped  and  sorted  into  various  classes — 
like  sevenpenny  novels,  sixpenny  paper 
bound  novels,  poetry,  classics,  religious  and 
miscellaneous — and  placed  on  different 
tables.  Those  who  unpack  enter  in  a book 
the  names  and  addresses  of  the  donors,  with 
remarks.  Acknowledgments  are  made  on 
a special  card  and  are  also  entered  in  the 
day  book.  The  requests  are  likewise  en- 
tered in  a day  book,  with  date,  address  and 
number  of  items  to  be  sent.  A label  is 
written,  consignment  sheet  made  out,  ad- 
vice card  attached,  as  well  as  a notice  card 
to  be  hung  up  for  reference  in  the  hospital. 
These  are  all  fastened  together  with  a clip 
and  placed  in  a box  for  the  selectors.  The 
selectors  choose  the  books  and  magazines 
to  be  sent  out,  enclose  the  notice  cards,  fill 
in  and  address  the  advice  card  and  place 
the  selection,  with  the  label,  in  a box  for 
the  packers.  After  the  parcel  is  packed  and 
addressed  the  label  is  attached,  the  address 
entered  in  the  railway  book,  then  advice 


9 


card  and  consignment  sheet  are  placed  in  a 
drawer  until  the  Railway  Company  repre- 
sentative calls.  When  the  parcels  leave  the 
Library  the  advice  cards  are  dated  and 
posted,  the  consignment  sheets  filled,  and 
an  index  card  is  written  for  the  hospital  if 
one  has  not  already  been  made.  The  num- 
ber of  parcels  sent  and  the  date  are  entered 
in  the  day  book,  and  the  book  containing 
the  original  entry  is  checked.  When  the 
secretaries  hear  of  a new  hospital,  a card 
is  sent  asking  whether  books  are  desired. 
At  the  same  time  an  index  card  is  made  on 
which  the  date  of  inquiry  is  entered.  An 
inquiry  card  is  also  sent  to  a hospital  that 
has  not  used  books  for  six  months. 

The  organization  must  be  well  thought 
out  or  else  a Tommy  Atkins  hospital  in 
Mesopotamia  will  get  the  parcel  intended 
for  an  officers’  hospital  on  the  Riviera. 
“The  selectors  must  have  intellectual  sym- 
pathies,” says  Mrs.  Gaskell,  “and  human 
sympathies.  They  must  send  a parcel  to 
a general  hospital  that  contains  Masefield’s 
‘Prose  Selections’  and  a large  sprinkling  of 
the  ‘Bull-dog  breed’  series.  Sometimes  as 
I touch  the  books  and  send  them  speeding 
on  their  way,  I think  of  the  strange  com- 
pany traveling  to  a still  stranger  fate.  Bos- 
well and  Pepys,  Nick  Carter  detective 
stories,  the  Bible,  Nat  Gould,  Words- 
worth’s Prelude,  Famous  Boxers,  the 
Koran,  Miss  Austen,  Mark  Twain,  Marie 
Corelli,  Macaulay,  London  Opinion , the 
Round  Table,  go  side  by  side  to  be  read — 
by  whom  ? All  we  know  is  that  those  brave 
souls  find  their  comfort  and  consolation  in 
reading,  for  they  tell  us  so  and  ask  for 
more.  Suffering,  weariness,  loneliness,  de- 
pression, weakness,  fear  of  death — most  of 
us  have  known  one  or  the  other.  But  these 
brave  hearts  know  one  and  all;  still  worse, 
the  fear  sometimes  of  inaction  for  life. 
Only  books  can  make  them  forget  for  a few 
minutes,  an  hour  perhaps.  I cannot  ask  for 
books  with  thoughts  in  my  heart  like  these ; 
they  ask,  and  surely  they  will  not  ask  in 
vain.” 

2.  THE  CAMPS  LIBRARY 

The  Camps  Library  owes  its  origin  to  the 
desire  of  the  English  to  prepare  in  every 
way  for  the  arrival  of  their  oversea 
brethren  who  were  coming  to  join  the  Im- 
perial Army.  The  various  contingents 


were  to  be  encamped  on  Salisbury  Plain — 
a place  admirably  adapted  for  military  con- 
centration and  training,  but  without  any 
opportunities  for  recreation.  Colonel  Sir 
Edward  Ward  was  asked  by  Lord  Kitchener 
to  undertake  the  general  care  of  the  con- 
tingents from  the  colonies.  Sir  Edward 
suggested  that,  among  other  things  needed 
for  the  troops,  libraries  be  established  for 
their  use.  The  War  Office  approved,  and 
the  Hon.  Mrs.  Anstruther  undertook  the 
organization  of  the  work.  An  appeal  to 
the  public  was  made  thru  the  press  for 
books  and  magazines  to  lighten  the  monot- 
ony of  the  long  autumn  and  winter  evenings 
of  the  soldiers  encamped  on  Salisbury  Plain. 
The  30,000  books  asked  for  were  quickly 
secured.  The  Association  of  Publishers 
sent  a large  contribution  of  suitable  liter- 
ature. The  books  and  magazines  as  re- 
ceived were  sorted  and  labeled  as  the  prop- 
erty of  the  Overseas  Library. 

When  it  became  known  that  the  Aus- 
tralian and  New  Zealand  contingents  would 
not  land  in  England,  but  would  disembark 
in  Egypt,  a division  of  books  was  made 
necessary  for  the  Canadians  from  those 
for  the  Australians  and  New  Zealanders. 
Special  tents  fitted  with  rough  shelving  and 
tables  were  provided  in  the  camps  of  the 
Canadian  soldiers.  On  the  arrival  of  the 
contingent,  the  chaplains  undertook  the 
care  and  distribution  of  the  books.  The 
desire  of  those  who  had  given  them  was 
that  every  facility  should  be  afforded  the 
men  in  obtaining  them,  and  that  no  strin- 
gent restrictions  should  be  imposed  on  the 
loans.  The  charging  system  was  a simple 
one : a manuscript  book  in  which  each  man 
wrote  the  name  of  the  book  borrowed,  the 
date  on  which  borrowed  and  his  signature, 
the  entry  being  erased  on  its  return.  “We 
found  that  our  labors  had  the  reward  for 
which  we  worked  and  hoped,”  wrote  Sir 
Edward.  “The  oversea  soldier  is  an  omni- 
vorous reader,  and  we  had  the  gratification 
of  learning  that  our  efforts  to  lighten  the 
dreary  evening  hours  were  very  deeply  ap- 
preciated.” Mrs.  Gaskell  also  comments 
on  the  curiously  different  appetite  for  books 
shown  by  the  overseas-  contingent,  remark- 
ing that  the  Canadians  have  an  insatiable 
desire  for  books  of  reference,  as  evidenced 
by  three  requests  from  Colonial  Hospitals 


10 


asking  for  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  in 
forty  volumes — all  of  which  were  duly 
granted. 

Large  quantities  of  books  and  magazines 
were  forwarded  to  the  Australians  and  New 
Zealanders  in  Egypt.  Then  a much  larger 
enterprise  was  launched:  the  provision  of 
libraries  for  the  camps  of  the  Territorial 
and  New  Armies  all  over  the  United  King- 
dom. Troops  were  quartered  in  camps  and 
at  detached  stations  far  from  towns  and 
healthful  amusements.  These  men  were  as 
much  in  need  of  good  reading  matter  as  the 
soldiers  on  Salisbury  Plain.  A large  empty 
warehouse  was  lent  thru  the  kindness  of 
the  representative  of  the  Belgian  Army  in 
London.  This  was  equipped  with  shelves 
and  tables  and  a further  appeal  was  made 
to  the  public  thru  the  press,  by  letters  to 
Lord-lieutenants  and  other  leaders  in  the 
various  countries,  to  Lord  Mayors  and 
Mayors  and  again  to  the  publishers.  Cir- 
culars were  sent  to  all  General  Officers 
commanding  and  the  Officers’  Commanding 
Units,  informing  them  of  the  new  under- 
taking, and  that  preparations  had  been 
made  to  give  them  books  and  magazines  in 
the  proportion  of  one  to  every  six  men  of 
their  strength  at  a small  charge  sufficient 
to  pay  for  the  cost  of  packing  and  the  labor 
of  the  working  staff  which  it  was  found 
necessary  to  employ,  as  warehousemen  and 
the  like. 

The  supply  of  books  was  ample  at  first, 
but  with  success  came  increased  demands 
from  troops  in  every  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom,  and  it  became  necessary  to  search 
out  fresh  fields  from  which  new  supplies 
might  be  gathered.  Then  came  the  realiza- 
tion that  there  was  a want  for  books  and 
magazines  even  more  urgent  than  that  of 
the  troops  at  home,  and  that  was  by  the 
men  in  the  trenches  and  in  the  convalescent 
and  rest  camps  at  the  front.  “When  it  is 
recognized,”  says  Sir  Edward,  “that  in  the 
trenches  only  one-fourth  of  the  men  are 
actively  on  duty  watching  the  enemy,  while 
the  remaining  three-fourths  are  concealed 
at  the  bottom  of  the  trenches  with  their 
field  of  vision  limited  to  a few  yards  of 
earth,  it  may  well  at  once  be  realized  how 
important  to  them  are  any  methods  of  en- 
livening the  long,  weary  hours  of  waiting.  ’ 
Consequently  a system  was  organized  by 
which,  once  a month,  boxes  were  sent  to 


every  unit  in  the  Expeditionary  Force,  the 
number  of  books  being  proportioned  to  the 
number  of  men,  200  books  to  a battalion. 
Bales  were  also  made  up  for  the  use  of 
men  on  trains  and  transports. 

Then  the  post  offices  thruout  the  country 
became  collecting  depots  for  the  Camps 
Library.  Those  wishing  to  send  books  or 
maps  to  the  soldiers  and  sailors  need  only 
hand  them  unaddressed,  unwrapped  and 
unstamped,  over  the  counter  of  any  post 
office,  and  they  are  forwarded  free  of 
charge  to  headquarters  for  sorting,  labeling 
and  shipping  to  the  troops.  Some  weeklies 
print  prominently  on  their  outside  cover 
a reminder  of  the  fact  that  the  reader,  when 
finished  with  the  number,  can  send  it  to  the 
troops  by  handing  it  without  any  fomality 
or  expense  over  the  counter  of  the  nearest 
post  office.  On  account  of  the  shortage  of 
staff  and  because  this  work  is  not  strictly 
post  office  business,  receipts  are  not  given 
for  books  and  magazines  received  in  this 
manner,  but  the  post  office  staff  are  keenly 
interested  in  the  scheme  and  make  the 
proper  disposal  of  literature  handed  in  a 
matter  of  personal  pride  and  honor. 

The  literature  sent  in  is  distributed  ac- 
cording to  an  agreed  proportion  of  bags 
to  the  London  Chamber  of  Commerce  and 
the  British  and  Foreign  Sailors’  Associa- 
tion for  the  use  of  the  Navy;  to  the  British 
Red  Cross  and  Order  of  St.  John  War 
Library  for  the  use  of  hospitals  and  hos- 
pital ships;  the  bulk  goes  to  the  Camps 
Library,  which  since  the  beginning  of  the 
war  has  dealt  with  over  nine  million  publi- 
cations. The  Camps  Library  alone  requires 
75,000  pieces  weekly  to  meet  the  ordinary 
minimum  needs  from  the  various  seats  of 
war,  and  it  is  ready  and  eager  to  deal  with 
as  many  more  as  the  public  will  give.  Espe- 
cially in  winter  the  demand  for  “something 
to  read”  in  training  and  rest  camps,  as  well 
as  from  those  at  the  front,  far  exceeds  the 
supply. 

“I  understand  most  fully,”  wrote  Sir 
Douglas  Haig,  “the  value  of  readable  books 
to  men  who  are  out  of  the  line  with  time 
on  their  hands,  and  little  opportunity  of 
getting  anything  of  the  sort  for  themselves. 
I need  say  nothing  to  support  the  claim  of 
those  who  are  wounded  or  convalescent. 
The  Camps  Library  exists  for  the  purpose 


II 


of  receiving  books  and  magazines  for  dis- 
tribution to  our  sailors  and  soldiers.  The 
demand  that  has  now  to  be  met  is  very  great 
and  increases  constantly  with  the  growth 
of  our  forces  overseas.  I am,  therefore, 
writing  this  letter  to  urge  all  those  at  home 
who  have  been  accustomed  to  buy  books 
and  magazines  in  the  past,  to  continue  to 
do  so  freely,  if  possible  in  increasing  num- 
bers, and,  having  read  and  enjoyed  them, 
to  pass  them  on  as  freely  to  the  Camps 
Library  for  circulation  among  the  troops/’ 

The  following  is  the  Camps  Library 
system  of  distribution:  Any  commanding 
officer  of  any  camp  at  home  or  abroad, 
wishing  to  form  a lending  library  for  the 
use  of  his  men,  can  call  upon  the  Camps 
Library  for  bound  books.  These  are  labeled 
and  sent  out  in  lots  of  one  hundred  in  the 
proportion  of  one  book  to  every  six  men. 
A supply  is  sent  to  regimental  recreation 
rooms  on  request.  Automatically,  once  a 
month,  no  application  being  necessary, 
boxes  or  bales  of  books  and  magazines  are 
sent  to  all  units,  in  proportion  to  their 
strength,  serving  with  the  British,  Mediter- 
ranean and  Indian  expeditionary  forces. 
Monthly  supplies  of  magazines  are.  sent  to 
the  bases  for  the  use  of  the  men  entraining 
for  the  front.  Chaplains  of  every  denom- 
ination in  every  theater  of  war  receive  on 
application  a box  once  a fortnight,  or  a 
bale  once  a month,  for  distribution.  All 
requests  for  light  literature  from  the  pris- 
oners of  war  are  dealt  with,  and  large 
libraries  have  been  formed  at  most  of  the 
prisoners’  camps  in  Germany. 

Great  as  has  been  the  weekly  supply  re- 
sulting from  the  sympathy  and  generosity 
of  the  public,  those  in  charge  feel  that  if 
the  demands  are  adequately  to  be  met  the 
present  supply  must  be  greatly  increased, 
and  those  responsible  for  the  distribution  of 
the  literature  hope  that  the  public  who  have 
so  generously  supported  the  organization 
in  the  past  will  not  only,  if  possible,  add  to 
their  own  gifts,  but  induce  others  to  sup- 
port the  scheme,  and  will  make  the  taking 
of  surplus  books  and  magazines  to  the  local 
post  office  a war  habit.  The  public  is  as- 
sured that  within  a very  few  days  after 
the  books  are  handed  across  the  counter 
of  any  post  office  they  are  in  possession  of 


fighting  men  at  home  and  abroad,  on  sea 
and  land,  in  camp  and  hospital. 

Miss  Marie  Corelli  has  given  several 
hundred  of  her  books,  and  Renee  Kelly 
has  presented  a special  edition  of  “Daddy 
Longlegs,”  in  the  dramatic  presentation 
of  which  she  has  been  so  successful.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  authors  might 
follow  these  examples  by  presenting 
copies  of  their  novels  for  the  use  of  the 
troops. 

Of  course,  some  things  come  in  that 
cannot  be  sent  out,  like  stray  numbers  of 
Punch  of  the  year  1846,  “Hints  to  mothers,” 
“How  to  cut  a blouse,”  “Meditations  among 
the  tombs,”  and  an  old  telephone  directory ! 
The  authorities  found  it  rather  difficult  to 
deal  with  a herring-barrel  full  of  sermons, 
and  were  at  a loss  to  know  what  to  do  with 
passionate  love  letters  included  by  mistake. 
Those  desirous  of  helping  are  asked  not 
to  send  “Talks  about  dress-making”  or 
“Guides  to  English  watering-places.” 

If  anyone  has  a doubt  as  to  whether 
these  books  and  magazines  are  appreciated 
by  the  men  for  whom  they  are  intended  a 
glance  thru  the  hundreds  of  letters  kept  at 
headquarters  will  dispel  it.  “Cramped  ill 
a crumbling  dug-out,  time  passes  slowly, 
and  the  monotony  is  greatly  relieved  by  a 
few  ‘mags’  from  the  old  folks  at  home,” 
writes  one  officer  from  the  front.  “The 
men  all  ask  for  pre-war  magazines.  It  is 
nice  to  get  away  from  it  for  a time.”  A 
letter  from  France  brought  this  message: 
“The  last  parcel  of  your  books  came  just 
as  we  had  been  relieved  after  the  gas  at- 
tack, and  there  is  nothing  like  a book  for 
taking  one’s  mind  off  what  one  has  seen 
and  gone  thru.”  The  wear  and  tear  on 
printed  matter  in  the  trenches  is  very  hard, 
and  magazines  at  the  front  last  but  a short 
time. 

“A  hut  will  probably  be  allotted  to  us 
as  a recreation  room,  and  it  will  contain 
bookcases  made  by  our  own  pioneers  from 
bacon  boxes  to  hold  your  gifts,”  reports 
another  officer.  Supply  wagons  known  to 
contain  parcels  of  books  are  eagerly 
watched  for  by  the  troops  in  the  Land  of 
Somewhere.  “The  lads  were  never  so 
pleased  in  their  lives  as  when  I told  them 
I had  some  books  for  them,”  is  the  way  one 


12 


lance-corporal  puts  it.  An  extract  from 
another  officer’s  letter  tells  the  same  story  : 
“Most  of  the  men  were  lying  or  sitting 
about  with  nothing  to  do.  When  I said  I 
had  a box  of  books  to  lend,  they  were 
around  me  in  a moment  like  a lot  of  hounds 
at  a worry,  and  in  less  than  no  time  each 
had  a book — at  least  as  far  as  they  would 
go.  Those  who  hadn’t  been  quick  enough 
were  trying  to  get  the  lucky  ones  to  read 
aloud.  It  would  have  done  you  good  to 
see  how  the  men  enjoyed  getting  the  books. 
. . . May  we  have  more,  as  many  more 
as  you  can  spare?” 

A regimental  officer  writes  from  Gallipoli 
that  he  considers  it  most  important  “to  give 
the  men  some  occupation  in  this  monoto- 
nous and  dull  trench  warfare.”  “The  long 
hours  of  waiting  that  frequently  fall  to  the 
lot  of  a unit  in  the  trenches  are  not  nearly 
so  trying  if  the  men  have  a good  supply  of 
books,”  is  the  testimony  of  another  officer. 
“All  the  books  sent  seem  very  welcome,  for 
soldiers’  tastes  vary,”  says  one  writer  from 
“Somewhere  in  France.”  Men  in  Salonika 
have  requested  a copy  of  a Greek  history, 
their  interest  in  the  subject  being  awakened 
by  the  treasures  of  antiquity  which  they 
excavated  while  digging  trenches.  “It 
would  give  us  great  joy  to  get  a few  books 
on  Syrip,  and  Palestine,”  is  the  statement 
of  an  Army  chaplain.  “I  myself  can  get 
but  few  books, — none  about  the  Crusaders. 
Only  Dr.  Stewart’s  about  the  Holy  Land. 
And  my  men  are  hungry  for  information. 
I have  sent  for  books  and  they  have  not 
come.  I would  gladly  pay  for  any  book  on 
either  subject  mentioned.  The  difficulties 
of  transport  have  got  in  my  way.  When  I 
was  in  Cairo  I could  not  get  a guide  to 
Syria  or  a book  on  the  Crusaders,  either  in 
English  or  French.  Yet  life  out  in  the 
desert,  or  rather,  wilderness,  is  conducive 
to  mental  receptivity  and  thought  of  higher 
things.” 

Another  phase  of  the  work  undertaken 
by  the  Camps  Library  was  to  establish 
lending  libraries  for  the  use  of  British 
prisoners  of  war  in  Germany,  Austria,  Hol- 
land, Switzerland,  Bulgaria  and  Turkey. 
The  packages  include  much  modern  fiction 
as  well  as  novels  by  some  of  the  old  stand- 
ard authors.  Biography,  travel,  history  and 


poetry,  magazines,  music  and  playing  cards 
are  also  provided.  Everything  is  barred 
that  deals  with  modern  international  politics 
or  that  would  be  likely  to  give  offense  or 
information  to  the  enemy.  Fresh  consign- 
ments are  sent  from  time  to  time,  both  to 
make  up  for  any  depreciation  and  to  in- 
crease the  size  and  scope  of  the  library. 
Where  a large  camp  has  a number  of  work- 
ing camps  attached  to  it,  arrangements  have 
been  made  by  which  the  librarian  at  the 
central  camp  receives  special  consignments 
for  distribution  among  the  latter.  When- 
ever possible  individual  requests  are  sup- 
plied, and  parcels  are  forwarded  to  any 
prisoner  who  applies  for  specific  books. 
As  a rule  the  German  authorities  have 
always  given  every  facility  for  the  receipt 
and  distribution  of  books  among  the  men. 
At  first  there  was  great  difficulty  in  getting 
in  touch  with  the  prisoners  in  Turkey  and 
Bulgaria,  but  communication  is  improving 
and  acknowledgments  of  packets  received 
are  reaching  the  Camps  Library  headquar- 
ters regularly. 

The  most  pathetic  bit  of  correspondence 
connected  with  the  whole  work  is  a pen- 
cilled note  on  a sheet  of  paper  fastened 
with  red  sealing  wax  to  an  inside  page  of 
a copy  of  “The  story  teller”: 

With  Best  Wishes. 

I am  only  a little  boy  of  io  years. 
And  I Hope  who  ever  gets  this  Book 
will  like  it.  My  father  is  missing.  Since 
the  25  and  26  Sept.  1915.  The  Battle  of 
Loos.  I wonder  if  it  will  fall  in  the 
hands  of  anyone  who  was  in  that  Battle 
and  could  give  us  any  Information  con- 
cerning Him. 

Underneath  is  written  the  name  of  the 
lad’s  father,  the  number  of  the  battalion, 
the  name  of  his  regiment,  and  the  home 
address.  Inquiries  were  set  on  foot,  but, 
alas,  they  were  of  no  avail.  The  little  boy’s 
father  was  one  of  the  great  army  who  had 
died  a hero’s  death  for  his  country’s  sake. 

3.  THE  YOUNG  MEN’S  CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION 

“Until  the  beginning  of  the  war,” 
writes  F.  A.  McKenzie  in  the  London 
Daily  Mail,  “the  average  citizen  regarded 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  as  a somewhat  milk-and- 
waterish  organization,  run  by  elderly 
men,  to  preach  to  youth.  This  view  was 


13 


exceedingly  unfair,  but  it  is  true  that  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  never  had  its  full  chance 
here  until  the  war  came.  Then  it  seized 
its  opportunity.  It  does  not  do  much 
preaching  nowadays.  It  is  too  busy 
serving.”*  The  organization  has  emerged 
from  a position  of  comparative  obscurity 
into  one  of  national  prominence.  Lord 
Derby  has  spoken  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  as 
"invaluable  in  peace  time  and  indispens- 
able in  war  time.”  Ever  since  the  war 
broke  out  it  has  sent  a constant  stream 
of  books  and  magazines  to  its  huts  at 
home  and  overseas.  Hundreds  of  thou- 
sands have  gone.  For  nearly  two  years 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  made  its  appeal  thru  the 
Camps  Library;  but  the  demand  for 
reading  matter  increased  so  enormously 
that  no  single  organization  could  cope 
with  it,  and  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  agreed  to 
enter  upon  a book  campaign  of  its  own. 
The  ground  floor  of  "Triangle  House,” 
the  new  Y.  M.  C.  A.  trading  and  trans- 
port headquarters,  has  been  devoted  to 
the  purpose.  A strong  staff  of  voluntary 
women  workers  has  been  recruited  by 
Mrs.  Douglas  Gordon,  the  honorary  li- 
brarian, and  the  ladies  have  already  shown 
what  they  can  do  in  the  matter  of  sort- 
ing, packing  and  despatching  books.  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Ernest  Rhys  energetically  or- 
ganized local  "book-days”  in  London. 
Two  days  in  Hampstead  alone  yielded 
thousands  of  volumes.  But  the  great 
necessity  was  that  a never-ceasing  supply 
of  books  and  magazines  from  all  quarters 
should  be  left  at,  forwarded  prepaid  or 
sent  by  post  to  Triangle  House,  Totten- 
ham Court  Road,  or  at  any  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  Bureaus  in  London. 

Book-teas  or  book-receptions,  to  which 
each  visitor  brings  one  or  more  volumes, 
prove  very  fruitful.  In  certain  parts  of 
the  country,  Y.  M.  C.  A.  book-days  have 
been  held,  when  by  the  aid  of  Boy  Scouts, 
or  a collection  taken  on  the  tramways, 
thousands  of  volumes  have  been  secured 
for  local  huts.  It  was  suggested  that  this 

* What  the  organization  is  doing  for  the  soldiers 
in  various  ways  is  told  by  J.  E.  Hodder  Williams,  in 
his  new  book,  "One  young  man;  the  simple  and  true 
story  of  a clerk  who  enlisted  in  1914,  who  fought  on 
the  Western  Front  for  nearly  two  years,  was  severely 
wounded  at  the  battle  of  the  Somme,  and  is  now  on 
his  way  back  to  his  desk.”  (London:  Hodder  & 
Stoughton,  1917.) 


kind  of  thing  might  be  undertaken  in 
dozens  of  towns  for  the  larger  purpose 
of  sending  books  overseas,  not  only  to 
France,  but  to  Egypt,  Mesopotamia,  Brit- 
ish East  Africa,  Salonika  and  Malta. 
Books  are  sent  to  the  huts,  of  course,  but 
they  are  valued  even  more  in  the  dug- 
outs  along  the  actual  trenches,  or  when 
given  to  men  just  starting  on  a tedious 
thirty-hour  railway  journey  from  the 
base  to  the  front.  For  such  purposes 
pocket  editions  are  highly  prized. 

The  general  libraries  are  intended  to 
contain  the  best  stories,  poetry,  travel, 
biography  and  essays,  both  classical  and 
modern.  Educational  books  are  needed 
in  every  hut  where  lectures  and  classes 
are  being  carried  on.  A good  devotional 
library  is  wanted  for  every  Quiet  Room — 
the  writings  of  men  like  Augustine,  a 
Kempis,  Bunyan,  Robertson,  or  Spurgeon, 
and  the  outstanding  books  of  the  last  ten 
years  on  religion.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  various  church  organizations  make 
up  libraries  of  this  kind  of  literature  and 
thus  perform  a practical  service  to  the 
men  of  the  Army. 

In  the  field  of  educational  books,  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  has  taken  over  the  work 
hitherto  carried  on  by  the  Fighting  Forces 
Book  Council,  which  was  constituted  for 
the  special  task  of  providing  literature  of 
a more  solid  and  educational  value  for 
men  of  the  forces.  The  authorities  feel 
that  they  need  large  numbers,  not  so  much 
of  school  books  or  text  books,  as  of 
brightly  written,  reliable  modern  mono- 
graphs like  those  in  the  "Home  Univer- 
sity Library”  and  Jack’s  series  of  "Peo- 
ple’s Books,”  so  that  the  men  can  follow 
up  the  lectures  that  they  have  heard. 
Volumes  of  the  “Everyman’s  Library,”  or 
of  Nelson’s  reprints  have  been  found  well 
suited  to  the  needs.  The  lectures  given  in 
the  huts  have  greatly  stimulated  the  book 
hunger  in  the  men,  and  their  interest  in 
the  history  of  "Old  Blighty.” 

An  officer  commanding  a military  school 
of  instruction  in  France  recently  wrote  in 
to  Headquarters,  begging  for  a library. 
He  sent  a list  of  the  kind  of  books  which 
he  was  desirous  of  putting  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  cadets  during  the  first  stage 


14 


of  their  education  at  his  school.  “I  hope 
from  all  this,”  said  he,  “you  may  be  able 
to  gather  the  type  of  book  we  should  like 
— authoritative,  but  not  too  long  or  too 
heavy  for  minds  dulled  to  study  by  trench 
life.” 

Money  sent  by  friends  can  be  spent  by 
the  authorities  to  the  best  advantage,  as 
special  arrangements  have  been  made  with 
the  publishers  and  with  the  great  firms 
that  run  railway  bookstalls  and  circulat- 
ing libraries.  One  of  these  firms  supplies 
second-hand  copies  of  the  standard  novels 
in  good  editions,  at  the  rate  of  six  shillings 
per  dozen. 

Appeals  are  being  sent  out  from  the 
National  Headquarters  at  the  Central 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  in  Tottenham  Court  Road, 
London,  for  books  and  magazines,  thou- 
sands of  which  are  needed  every  week  for 
the  soldiers  in  camp  and  “up-the-line.” 
The  public  helped  well  at  first,  but  then 
the  supply  dropped  down  sadly.  In  con- 
sequence notices  were  sent  out  in  Febru- 
ary, 1917,  calling  special  attention  to  the 
need  for  small  pocket  editions  of  novels — 
the  sevenpenny  and  shilling  size;  good 
novels  by  standard  authors;  books  of 
history,  biography  and  travel ; manuals  of 
science;  religious  books;  illustrated  mag- 
azines; really  good  literature  of  all  kinds, 
but  not  large  or  heavy  books,  and  no  old 
out-of-date  ones.  People  were  urged  to 
give  something  that  they  themselves  really 
cared  for.  They  were  notified  by  circular 
that  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  book  collector  would 
call  shortly.  “We  trust  that  you  will 
spare  half  a dozen  or  more  of  your  favor- 
ite authors,”  said  the  president  of  the 
Ladies’  Auxiliary  Committee.  “You  will 
never  regret  this  small  sacrifice  for  our 
men  serving  their  country.” 

Placards  were  distributed  reading:  “Mo- 
bilize your  books.  Leave  your  favorite 
books,  novels,  war-books,  current  maga- 
zines, at  the  nearest  Y.  M.  C.  A.  depot, 
or  send  them  to  the  Book  Bureau,  144, 
Tottenham  Court  Road.  They  are  ur- 
gently needed  for  our  soldiers  abroad,  at 
the  base,  and  in  the  trenches.” 

Mr.  A.  St.  John  Adcock,  the  well- 
known  novelist  and  journalist,  has  de- 
scribed a visit  he  made  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 


huts  in  France  and  in  Flanders.  “Wher- 
ever the  troops  go,”  said  he,  “the  huts 
of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  spring  up  in  the  midst 
of  them;  or  if  you  notice  no  huts  it  is 
because  you  are  in  the  danger  zone,  and 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  is  carrying  on  its  benefi- 
cent business  as  usual  in  dim  cellars  under 
shattered  houses  or  in  convenient  dug- 
outs  among  the  trenches.  . . . There  is 
always  a library  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  huts 
when  their  arrangements  are  completed. 
Sometimes  it  is  in  a small  separate  room; 
usually  it  is  on  half  a dozen  or  more 
shelves  in  a corner,  and,  perhaps  because 
books  happen  to  be  my  own  principal 
form  of  enjoyment,  I always  think  it  adds 
just  the  last  touch  of  homeliness  to  the 
hut.  And  you  may  depend  that  thousands 
of  the  soldiers  think  so,  too.  For  one 
has  to  remember  that  our  armies  to-day 
are  like  no  armies  that  ever  went  out  to 
battle  for  us  before.  Most  of  our  soldiers 
in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  even  in  the  Cri- 
mean War,  did  not  require  books,  because 
they  couldn’t  read;  but  the  British,  Ca- 
nadian, Australasian  and  South  African 
troops  on  service  the  world  over  are 
largely  made  up  of  men  who  were  part 
of  what  we  call  the  reading  public  at 
home,  and  if  books  were  their  friends  in 
peace  time  they  are  even  greater  friends 
to  them  now,  especially  when  they  have 
to  make  long  waits  in  Base  camps,  far  be- 
hind the  trenches,  and  have  more  than 
plenty  of  leisure  on  their  hands.”  Or,  as 
Mr.  Charles  T.  Bateman  put  it:  “The 
private  of  to-day  is  not  an  ignorant  yokel 
who  has  taken  the  shilling  to  escape  some 
trouble.” 

Mr.  Adcock  says  that  before  he  made 
this  visit  to  the  front,  he  had,  and  he 
knew  others  who  had,  letters  from  sev- 
eral soldiers  asking  for  books  of  recita- 
tions suitable  for  camp  concerts.  Some 
wrote  for  certain  poets  and  essayists; 
while  two  inquired  definitely  for  text 
books  in  chemistry  and  biology.  In  the 
camps,  Mr.  Adcock  naturally  found  that 
the  chief  demand  was  for  fiction,  but 
there  were  many  men  who  had  prefer- 
ences for  biography,  essays,  poetry,  and 
for  all  manner  of  histories.  One  man 
who  was  reading  Macaulay’s  History  re- 


15 


gretted  that  there  was  only  an  odd  first 
volume  in  the  library,  and  he  was  anxious 
to  get  hold  of  the  second.  A sergeant 
ran  off  a score  of  titles  of  novels  and 
memoirs  he  had  recently  read,  and  he 
was  now  tackling  Boswell.  He  was  anx- 
ious to  know  if  Mr.  Adcock  could  send 
him  half  a dozen  copies  of  Omar  Khay- 
yam, which  he  would  like  to  give  to  some 
of  his  men  as  Christmas  presents.  There 
were  several  Dickens  enthusiasts  in  the 
camp.  One  who  knew  nothing  of  him 
before  he  went  out,  except  the  “Tale  of 
Two  Cities,”  had,  since  he  had  been  in 
France,  borrowed  and  read  “David  Cop- 
perfield”  and  “Great  Expectations,”  and 
was  now  deep  in  “Our  Mutual  Friend.” 
“He  spoke  of  these  stories,”  says  Mr.  Ad- 
cock, “as  delightedly  as  a man  might  talk 
of  the  wonders  of  a newly-discovered 
world,  and  it  made  me  sorry  that  those 
who  had  given  these  books  for  his  use 
could  never  quite  know  how  much  they 
had  given.” 

Sometimes  the  men  just  take  the  books 
to  read  in  the  reading  room,  but  often 
they  prefer  to  take  them  to  their  bar- 
racks, in  which  case  they  leave  a small 
deposit  until  the  book  is  returned.  The 
men  feel  that  if  they  had  twice  as  many 
books  as  at  present  they  should  not  have 
enough.  They  especially  want  more  books 
of  the  better  kind.  They  could  use  any 
amount  of  fiction  by  Kipling,  Wells,  Ben- 
nett, Ian  Hay,  Barrie,  Doyle,  Hall  Caine, 
Stevenson,  Jacobs — there’s  a public  for 
them  all,  while  Dickens,  Scott  and  the 
older  novelists  are  wonderfully  popular. 
Properly  prepared  scrap-books  have 
proved  invaluable.  There  is  also  a sur- 
prising number  of  more  serious  readers 
who  ask  for  Carlyle,  Emerson,  Greene, 
Lamb,  Ruskin,  Shakespeare,  Tennyson — 
books  which  frequently  cannot  be  sup- 
plied. 

“I  overtook  a smart  young  soldier  one 
afternoon  on  the  fringe  of  one  of  the 
base  camps,”  writes  Mr.  Adcock.  “He 
limped  slightly,  and  as  we  walked  to- 
gether I noticed  a copy  of  Browning 
sticking  out  of  his  breast  pocket,  and  re- 
marked upon  it.  It  seemed  he  had  been 
for  three  weeks  in  the  convalescent  part 


of  the  camp  with  a badly  sprained  ankle, 
and  had  profited  by  that  leisure  to  read 
for  the  first  time  the  whole  of  Keats  and 
Wordsworth,  and  was  just  beginning 
Browning.  He  came  from  Manchester 
and  was,  in  civil  life,  a musician.  ‘But,’ 
he  laughed,  ‘you  can’t  bring  a ’cello  with 
you  on  active  service,  so  I have  fallen 
back  more  on  reading.  I was  always  fond  of 
it,  but  I’ve  read  more  in  the  ten  months 
I have  been  here  than  in  any  ten  months 
at  home.’  He  drew  the  Browning  from 
his  pocket,  and  I noticed  the  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
stamp  on  it.  ‘Yes,’  he  said,  ‘they’ve  got 
some  fine  little  libraries  in  the  huts.  They 
are  a godsend  to  the  chaps  here.  But  I 
haven’t  been  able  to  come  across  a Shelley 
or  a Francis  Thompson  yet.  I would  like 
to  read  Thompson.’” 

Of  the  elderly  volunteer  workers  who 
had  given  not  only  their  time  but  also 
their  automobiles  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Mr. 
Adcock  saw  three  who  had  sons  up  in 
the  trenches,  and  two  who  had  sons  ly- 
ing in  the  soldiers’  cemeteries  behind  the 
lines.  “It  is  not  possible  for  all  of  us 
to  do  as  much  as  that,”  said  he.  “Most 
of  us  have  neither  time  nor  cars  to  give; 
but  it  is  possible  for  all  of  us  to  do  some- 
thing to  lighten  the  lives  of  our  fighting 
men,  and  since  I have  seen  what  pleasure 
and  solace  they  get  from  them,  I know 
that  even  if  we  give  nothing  but  books 
we  have  given  infinitely  more  than  our 
money  could  buy.” 

“The  problem  of  dealing  with  condi- 
tions, at  such  a time,  and  under  existing 
circumstances,  at  the  rest  camps,  has  al- 
ways been  a most  difficult  one,”  wrote 
General  French  from  Headquarters,  “but 
the  erection  of  huts  by  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association  has  made  this  far 
easier.  The  extra  comfort  thereby  af- 
forded to  the  men,  and  the  opportunities 
for  reading  and  writing,  have  been  of 
incalculable  service.”  The  providing  of 
free  stationery  in  all  its  buildings,  at  an 
outlay  averaging  £1000  per  week,  has  been 
a beneficent  and  highly  salutary  phase  of 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work.  The  expense  is 
justified,  as  the  letters  he  writes  mean 
everything  to  the  soldier  and  his  friends. 
They  not  only  help  to  keep  him  straight, 


i6 


but  also  preserve  the  happy  relationship 
between  the  sender  and  the  receiver.  Mil- 
lions of  letters  have  been  written  on  this 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  paper,  and  the  recipients  have 
felt  reassured  because  they  realized  that 
there  was  someone  looking  after  their 
boys.  Roman  Catholics  and  Jews  have 
written  grateful  letters  to  Headquarters 
because  their  friends  had  received  a wel- 
come at  the  writing  tables  without  any 
question  of  creed  being  raised.  In  view 
of  all  that  this  organization  is  doing  at 
the  front,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  grate- 
ful soldiers  interpret  the  ever-welcome 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  sign  as  meaning  “You  Make 
Christianity  Attractive.” 

4.  BRITISH  PRISONERS  OF  WAR  BOOK  SCHEME 

(educational) 

Shortly  after  the  outbreak  of  hostilities, 
three  Englishmen,  held  captive  in  the 
makeshift  camp  formed  out  of  the  build- 
ings attached  to  the  race-course  at  Ruhle- 
ben,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Berlin,  sent 
identical  letters  to  three  friends  in  Great 
Britain  (of  whom  one  was  Mr.  Alfred  T. 
Davies,  C.B.,  permanent  Secretary  of  the 
Welsh  Department  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion) asking  that  serious  books  be  sent  them 
for  purposes  of  study.  This  request  led 
Mr.  Davies  to  organize  a system  of  book 
supply  for  British  prisoners  of  war  in- 
terned in  Germany.  The  appeal  which  he 
sent  out  met  with  a liberal  response,  but 
as  the  station  in  life  of  the  men  interned 
varied  from  that  of  a university  professor 
to  that  of  a jockey,  it  required  some  work 
to  find  books  suited  to  the  different  tastes 
and  capacities.  The  Camp  Education  De- 
partment was  organized,  and  an  appeal  to 
the  public  for  offers  of  new  or  second- 
hand books  was  sanctioned  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Education.  Imme- 
diately there  was  a generous  response. 
Within  the  first  year  about  9000  educa- 
tional books  were  forwarded  to  Ruhleben. 
The  200  lecturers  and  their  pupils,  gath- 
ered from  the  4000  civilians  interned  there, 
now  have  an  excellent  library  to  draw 
from.  The  Foreign  Office  then  approved 
steps  taken  to  extend  to  prisoners  in  other 
camps  the  advantages  which  have  proved 
so  helpful  in  Ruhleben,  and  inquiries  con- 


ducted thru  the  British  Legations  at  The 
Hague,  Copenhagen  and  Berne,  and  thru 
the  United  States  Embassies  at  Berlin, 
Vienna,  Sofia  and  Constantinople,  resulted 
in  applications  being  received  from  vari- 
ous camps  in  Holland,  Germany,  Austria, 
Turkey,  Bulgaria  and  Switzerland.  These 
requests  have  all  been  met  from  supplies 
gathered  at  the  Board  of  Education  head- 
quarters. The  wants  of  prisoners  can  be 
nearly  always  supplied  if  their  relatives 
will  communicate  with  Mr.  Davies  at  the 
Board  of  Education  Offices,  Whitehall. 
Among  the  subjects  on  which  books  have 
been  specially  requested  are  agriculture, 
art  (including  oil  and  watercolor  painting, 
pastel,  drawing  and  perspective,  printing 
and  design,  lettering,  etc.);  architecture; 
atlases;  aviation;  biography;  Celtic 
(Gaelic  and  Welsh) ; commerce,  finance 
and  banking;  dictionaries  and  grammars 
(English  and  foreign,  especially  Italian, 
Spanish  and  Russian)  ; encyclopaedias;  en- 
gineering in  its  numerous  branches;  for- 
estry ; handicrafts ; Hindustani ; music  of 
various  kinds;  natural  history;  naviga- 
tion; Russian  literature;  trades;  telegraphy 
and  telephony;  travel.  This  book  scheme 
does  not  overlap  the  work  of  any  other 
war  organization.  “It  will  be  a matter  of 
surprise  to  many,”  says  Mr.  Davies,  “to 
learn  that,  for  over  a year  and  a half,  some 
200  lecturers  and  teachers  and  1500  stu- 
dents, organized  in  nine  different  depart- 
ments of  study  (the  arts,  languages,  sci- 
ences, navigation,  engineering,  music,  etc.) 
have  been  busily  at  work  in  the  Camp, 
and  that  there  is  perhaps  as  much  solid 
work  going  on  among  these  civilian  vic- 
tims of  the  Great  War  as  can  be  claimed 
to-day  by  any  University  in  the  British 
Empire.” 

The  educational  work  of  the  Camp  is 
suited  to  meet  the  requirements  of  three 
classes  of  men:  1.  Those  whose  intern- 
ment has  interrupted  their  preparations 
for  such  examinations  as  the  London 
matriculation,  the  various  university  de- 
grees, or  the  Board  of  Trade  nautical 
examinations;  2.  Those  who  already  had 
entered  upon  a commercial  or  professional 
career;  3.  Those  who  are  pursuing  some 
form  of  learning  for  learning’s  sake.  An 


BOOKS  FOR  THE  WOUNDED 


LIBRARY 

0.  .€ 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


1 7 


interesting  development  has  been  formu- 
lated by  which  interned  men  who  attend 
classes  may  secure  under  certain  condi- 
tions a recognition  of  their  work  when 
they  return  home.  The  Board  of  Trade, 
which  has  welcomed  the  idea  with  en- 
thusiasm, is  prepared,  in  calculating  the 
period  of  qualifying  service  required  be- 
fore a certificate  of  competency  can  be 
obtained,  to  take  into  account  the  evi- 
dence of  study  during  internment  sub- 
mitted to  them  on  a special  form.  This 
record  form  has  been  drawn  up  for  use 
in  the  camps,  after  consultation  with  vari- 
ous examining  and  professional  bodies, 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  and  preserv- 
ing authenticated  details  of  the  courses  of 
study  pursued  by  any  student  in  a camp. 
It  is  hoped  that  this  record  may  be  of 
material  benefit  to  the  men  when  the  time 
comes  for  them  to  resume  their  inter- 
rupted careers.  Thus  a man  who  wants 
to  become  a master,  mate,  first  or  second 
engineer  in  the  mercantile  marine,  skip- 
per or  second  hand  of  a fishing  vessel, 
and  is  willing  to  devote  a few  hours  a 
day  to  regular  study  in  a camp  where 
there  is  systematic  instruction  in  naviga- 
tion and  seamanship,  can  have  this  work 
counted  towards  his  certificate. 

The  Ruhleben  Camp  started  a library 
of  its  own  on  Nov.  14,  1914,  with  83  books, 
received  from  the  American  Ambassador, 
Mr.  Gerard,  and  Mr.  Trinks.*  Books 
wrere  also  received  from  the  Seamen’s 
Mission  at  Hamburg  and  from  Mudie’s 
Library.  By  July,  1915,  there  were  2000 
English  and  American  magazines,  300 
German  books  and  130  French  books.  On 
the  average  250  books  a day  were  taken 
out.  As  they  had  a printer  in  camp,  they 
decided  to  print  a catalog.  The  demands 
that  come  in  now  at  the  enlarged  library 
are  varied  and  curious,  but  nearly  all  can 

* “Books,  brochures  and  maps  were  procurable 
through  the  Camp  Bookseller  (Mr.  F.  L.  Musset); 
and  on  the  walls  of  many  a horse-box  or  in  the  pas- 
sage of  the  stables  were  pasted  large  maps  of  the 
various  theatres  of  war,  upon  which  the  course  of 
operations  was  followed  from  day  to  day.  Many 
men  also  cut  out  of  their  papers  the  small  maps  il- 
lustrating particular  campaigns  and  preserved  them 
for  future  reference.  As  these  various  publications 
had  to  be  ordered  through  the  Camp  Bookseller  and 
passed  through  the  hands  of  the  military  authorities, 
the  latter  were  able  to  prevent  the  entry  of  any 
printed  matter  that  was  considered  dangerous.” — 
Israel  Cohen,  “The  Ruhleben  prison  camp:  a record 
of  nineteen  months'  internment.”  1917,  p.  212. 


be  supplied  from  the  shelves.  Books  in 
fourteen  languages  have  been  asked  for 
and  supplied.  Dictionaries  and  books  on 
electricity  and  engineering  are  constantly 
in  demand.  One  man  asks  for  a book  on 
tropical  agriculture;  another  wants  a 
manual  on  cotton  spinning,  while  a third 
man  needs  Schlumberger’s  ‘‘Siege  de  Con- 
stantinople.” Another  writes  for,  and  re- 
ceives thru  the  generosity  of  the  pub- 
lisher, a beautiful  work  on  the  “Sculp- 
tured tombs  of  Rome,”  a subject  on 
which  he  is  planning  to  make  a personal 
contribution  after  his  release.  Some 
R.  N.  V.  R.  men  at  Doeberitz  sent  in  a 
comprehensive  request  for  “The  Agricul- 
tural Holding  Act,  a Motor  Manual,  Prac- 
tical Navigation,  Bee-keeping  and  Furni- 
ture (periods  and  styles).” 

“We  are  working  in  stone-quarries  with 
some  Frenchmen,”  writes  a private,  “and 
should  like  to  be  able  to  talk  to  them  more.” 
“I  can  speak  Russian  pretty  fair,  but  not  in 
their  grammar,”  writes  a Jack  Tar.  A 
certified  teacher  writes:  “No  one  knows 
better  than  I myself  how  I am  deteriorat- 
ing,” and  he  asks  for  and  receives  books 
on  Educational  Psychology,  so  as  to  catch 
up  again  with  the  trend  of  thought  in  his 
profession.  The  aim  of  the  organization 
is  to  provide  every  prisoner  with  exactly 
the  book  or  books  he  may  desire  or  need, 
on  any  subject  or  in  any  language.  “‘No 
dumping  allowed/  is  a rule  which  is  ap- 
plied alike  to  donors  and  recipients,”  says 
Mr.  Davies.  “ ‘Feed  us  with  books/  is  the 
appeal,  but  send  us  first  a list  of  books 
with  their  titles  and  their  dates  of  publi- 
cation so  that  we  may  mark  those  that  are 
likely  to  be  of  use.  If  we  did  not  protect 
ourselves  in  this  way  we  would  have  peo- 
ple who  wanted  to  clear  out  their  libra- 
ries and  rid  themselves  of  old  novels  and 
old  school  books  by  dumping  them  on  us. 
As  it  is  we  get,  and  we  hope  to  get,  until 
our  prisoners  are  free,  a constant  supply 
of  useful  historical,  technical,  geograph- 
ical and  other  books,  all  of  them  in  good 
condition  and  many  quite  new.  In  each 
of  them  we  put  a book-plate  saying  that 
the  book  is  supplied  by  X (giving  the 
donor’s  name)  thru  the  agency  of  the 
Board  of  Education.” 


i8 


One  prisoner,  desperate  with  his  weary 
months  of  captivity,  wrote : “I  shall  go 
mad  unless  I get  something  to  read,”  and 
his  case  is  typical  of  many  others.*  In  sup- 
port of  Mr.  Davies’  call  for  either  money 
or  books,  a correspondent  wrote  to  the 
London  Times  an  appeal  on  behalf  of  the 
British  prisoners  of  war.  “You  have  fed, 
you  are  feeding  their  bodies,”  said  he. 
“To  the  prisoners  in  Germany  you  are 
sending  bread,  which  they  badly  need,  as 
well  as  sardines  and  hams  and  jams  and 
toothpowder  and  monthly  magazines  and 
other  luxuries  of  life  which  they  keenly 
appreciate.  But  prisoners  cannot  live  by 
bread  alone,  and  not  even  a pot  of  marma- 
lade or  a thrilling  story  by  X or  Y can  fill 
the  void.  They  want  food  for  the  mind 
as  well  as  for  the  stomach  and  the  imag- 
ination, and,  unless  their  minds  are  to 
decay,  they  must  have  it.  . . . The  months 
or  years  of  internment  need  not  be  waste 
time.  The  calamity  may  even  be  turned 
to  good  account  (as  other  calamities  inci- 
dent to  warfare  are  being  every  day) 
thanks  to  the  scheme  which  enables  en- 
forced leisure  to  be  filled  with  profitable 
study.  ...  It  is  not  only  a question  of 
providing  the  excellent  cure  for  boredom 
known  as  ‘getting  your  teeth’  into  a 
course  of  study.  It  is  more  even  than  en- 
abling the  younger  prisoners  to  continue 
their  education  and  keep  up  in  the  race 
with  their  more  fortunate  coevals.  The 
iron  has  entered  into  the  soul  of  many,  or 
most,  of  these  men.  To  provide  them  with 
the  means  of  hard  work  for  the  mind  may 
be  to  do  more  than  enable  them  to  win 
some  profit  out  of  calamity.  It  may  be  to 
affect  their  whole  attitude  toward  life,  the 
future  tone  and  temper  of  their  minds  and 
spirits.  It  may  be  to  bring  them  back  to 
us  full  of  vitality  and  gladness,  not  embit- 
tered and  despairing;  to  save  for  cheer- 
fulness and  happy,  hopeful  work  in  the 
world  what  else  might  have  been  irre- 
mediably lost.  Of  all  the  existing  schemes 
for  the  relief  of  prisoners,  military  and 

* “No  more  books  or  music,  and  no  more  women. 
I’m  simply  rotting  mentally.”  William  G.  Shepherd, 
the  war  correspondent,  says  that  he  has  had  officers 
make  this  confession  to  him  in  five  different  lan- 
guages in  seven  different  armies.  “I'm  rotting,  and 
I can’t  help  it.”  Not  all  the  bad  things  of  war 
happen  to  human  bodies,  comments  Mr.  Shepherd. 


civil,  this  is  surely  the  most  beneficent.” 

The  best  idea  of  the  intellectual  side  of 
life  at  Ruhleben  Camp  can  be  had  from 
reading  the  volume  edited  by  Douglas 
Sladen:  “In  Ruhleben;  letters  from  a 
prisoner  to  his  mother”  (London,  Hurst 
& Blackett,  1917).  Bishop  Bury,  who 
visited  the  camp  officially,  said  that  there 
was  so  much  studying  going  on  that  he 
called  it  the  University  of  Ruhleben.  The 
writer  of  the  letters  is  an  anonymous 
young  university  undergraduate  of  the 
type  responsible  for  the  class-spirit  of 
Ruhleben.  On  the  second  day  in  camp  he 
was  introduced  into  a little  group  which 
read  Bergson’s  “Le  rire”  under  the  most 
extraordinary  conditions.  He  taught  an 
intermediate  French  class,  the  pupils  rang- 
ing from  a sailor  to  a graduate  of  Aber- 
deen University.  He  read  Schiller’s  plays 
with  a few  comrades,  and  he  himself 
worked  thru  the  Theaetetus  of  Plato.  He 
also  helped  a couple  of  men  with  some 
elementary  Latin  and  was  planning  to 
take  one  of  them  in  Greek. 

The  interned  men  publish  a magazine 
In  Ruhleben  Camp  in  which  are  re- 
flected the  various  currents  of  thought 
among  the  prisoners.  One  Philistine 
sneered  about  every  one  wanting  to  learn 
several  languages  at  once.  “I  do  not  sup- 
pose,” said  he,  “there  is  a single  man  in 
the  camp  who  cannot  ask  you  how  you 
feel,  how  you  felt  yesterday,  in  half  a 
dozen  different  languages,  but  I doubt  if 
there  are  more  than  ten  who  can  say 
what  is  wrong  with  them  in  three.”  The 
Debating  Society  discussed  such  subjects 
as  “Resolved,  that  concentration  camps 
are  an  essentially  retrogressive  feature  of 
warfare”;  “That  bachelors  be  taxed,” 
(the  meeting  deciding  wholeheartedly 
that  bachelorhood  was  enough  of  a tax 
itself,  since  they  had  lived  in  an  enforced 
state  of  bachelorhood  from  the  opening 
of  the  Camp) ; “That  the  metric  system 
be  introduced  into  Great  Britain,”  which 
fell  thru  because  no  speaker  could  be 
found  to  oppose  it.  Whitaker’s  Almanac 
gives  125  denominations  and  multiples  of 
anything  from  5 y2  to  112  which  one  is 
supposed  to  know  something  about  if  he 
wishes  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  com- 


19 


merce  of  the  world.  The  only  man  re- 
puted to  have  mastered  the  English  sys- 
tem lived  to  a great  age  and  died  just 
as  he  completed  his  knowledge. 

The  Committee  in  charge  of  the  British 
Prisoners  of  War  Book  Scheme  is  con- 
sidering a plan  whereby  released  prison- 
ers in  poor  circumstances,  and  especially 
those  living  in  rural  districts  and  remote 
parts  of  the  British  Isles,  will  be  able  to 
obtain  the  loan,  for  purposes  of  study, 
of  books  which  they  cannot  afford  to  buy, 
and  which  they  cannot  borrow  from  a 
nearby  public  library.  It  is  hoped  that 
as  an  outcome  of  the  committee’s  ef- 
forts a large  lending  library  will  be  es- 
tablished for  the  benefit  of  the  released 
British  prisoners  and  victims  of  the  war, 
operated  possibly  in  connection  with  some 
already  existing  library  as  a center. 

5.  THE  MILITARY  HOSPITAL,  ENDELL  STREET, 
LONDON 

The  Military  Hospital  in  Endell  street, 
London,  is  the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  Eng- 
land officered  entirely  by  women.  The 
staff  includes  fourteen  doctors,  thirty-six 
nursing  sisters  and  ninety  orderlies.  In 
the  spring  of  1915  when  preparations  were 
being  made  for  the  reception  of  the 
wounded  sent  back  from  the  front,  two 
well  known  literary  women  were  invited 
to  act  as  honorary  librarians.  These  were 
Miss  Elizabeth  Robins  and  Miss  Beatrice 
Harraden.  They  were  asked  to  collect 
suitable  books  and  magazines,  and  by  per- 
sonal intercourse  with  the  soldiers  to  en- 
courage them  to  read.  Their  task  was  to 
help  the  men  thru  their  long  hours  of  ill- 
ness by  providing  reading  matter  that 
would  interest  and  amuse  them.  Miss 
Harraden  says  that  from  the  outset  it 
seemed  an  interesting  project,  but  nothing 
like  so  stimulating  and  gratifying  as  it  has 
proved  to  be.  It  has  shown  the  truth  of 
the  maxim  that  reading  is  to  the  mind 
what  medicine  is  to  the  body. 

They  began  by  writing  to  their  publisher 
friends,  who  generously  sent  large  con- 
signments of  fiction,  travel  and  biography, 
and  hundreds  of  magazines.  Authors  also 
willingly  came  to  their  aid.  A lady  pre- 
sented a dignified  and  imposing  bookcase, 


which  was  placed  in  the  recreation  room, 
giving  an  outward  and  visible  sign  of  the 
official  existence  of  a library.  Other  book- 
cases were  given  and  were  soon  filled. 
The  librarians  were  “still  engaged  in  the 
heavy  task  of  sorting  and  rejecting  liter- 
ally shoals  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  of 
books,  when  suddenly  the  hospital  was 
opened  and  the  men  arrived  from  the  front. 
It  was  remarkable  what  private  people  did 
send — and  do  still  send.  It  was  as  if  they 
had  said  to  themselves : Here  is  a grand 
opportunity  of  getting  rid  of  all  of  our 
old,  dirty , heavy  book  encumbrances !’  ” 
Miss  Harraden  says  that  she  does  not  re- 
call ever  having  been  so  dirty  or  so  in- 
dignant. It  was  necessary  to  keep  con- 
stantly on  hand  a number  of  sacks  in 
which  all  surplus  matter  was  despatched 
to  one  of  the  war  libraries  or  to  the  Sal- 
vation Army,  which  disposed  of  useless 
books  and  papers  for  pulp  making.  But  to 
offset  this  there  were  the  people  who  with 
generosity  and  understanding  sent  new 
books  or  money  with  which  to  buy  needed 
volumes. 

It  was  early  decided  to  have  no  red  tape. 
The  book  cases  were  left  unlocked  at  all 
times  so  as  to  enable  the  men  who  used 
the  room  to  go  to  the  shelves  and  pick  out 
what  they  liked.  The  librarians  took  books 
into  the  wards  to  the  men  who  were  con- 
fined to  their  beds.  After  various  experi- 
ments, Miss  Harraden  and  Miss  Robins 
divided  the  wards  between  them  and  made 
the  rounds  with  note-book  in  hand,  find- 
ing out'  whether  the  soldier  cared  to  read 
and  if  so  what  kind  of  thing  he  was  likely 
to  want.  This  mental  probing  had  to  be 
done  without  worrying  the  patient,  for  in 
some  cases  the  thought  of  a book  was 
apparently  more  terrifying  than  the  idea 
of  a bomb.  In  such  cases,  a smoke  served 
as  a substitute  for  reading,  to  which  gener- 
ally speaking  it  was  a natural  concomitant. 

There  were  some  patients  who  had  never 
learned  to  read.  With  one  exception  these 
men  were  miners.  Men  who  were  not 
naturally  readers  acquired  the  reading 
habit  while  in  the  hospital.  Many  of  the 
men  when  they  became  well  enough  to  be- 
come out-patients  asked  permission  for 
continued  use  of  the  library.  It  was  a 


20 


\ 


source  of  much  pleasure  to  the  librarians 
to  see  old  patients  stroll  into  the  recreation 
room  and  pick  out  for  themselves  a book 
by  an  author  with  whom  they  had  become 
acquainted  in  their  early  days  at  the 
hospital. 

A glance  thru  the  order  books  will  show 
the  type  of  popular  reading  chosen  by  the 
patients.  Taking  the  order  books  at  ran- 
dom, but  the  entries  consecutively,  we  get 
a list  like  the  following  which  will  give 
some  idea  of  the  result  of  the  pilgrimages 
from  one  bedside  to  another,  and  from  one 
ward  to  another: 

One  of  Nat  Gould's  novels. 

Regiments  at  the  front. 

Burns’s  poems. 

A book  on  bird  life. 

The  last  days  of  Pompeii. 

Strand  Magazine. 

Strand  Magazine. 

Wide  World  Magazine. 

The  Spectator. 

A scientific  book. 

Review  of  Reviews. 

By  the  wish  of  a woman  (Marchmont). 

One  of  Rider  Haggard’s. 

Marie  Corelli. 

Nat  Gould. 

Rider  Haggard. 

Nat  Gould. 

Nat  Gould. 

Nat  Gould. 

Good  detective  story. 

Something  to  make  you  laugh. 

S trand  M agazine. 

Adventure  story. 

Tale  of  two  cities. 

Gil  Bias. 

Browning’s  poems. 

Tolstoi’s  Resurrection. 

Sexton  Blake. 

Handy  Andy  (Lover). 

Kidnapped. 

Treasure  Island. 

Book  about  rose  growing. 

Montezuma’s  daughter  (Haggard). 

Prisoner  of  Zenda. 

Macaulay’s  Essays. 

The  magnetic  north  (Robins). 

Nat  Gould. 

Sexton  Blake. 

Modern  high  explosives. 

Dawn  (Haggard). 

Wild  animals. 

Book  on  horse-breaking. 

Radiography. 

Some  of  the  men  showed  an  anxiety  to 
have  a book  waiting  for  them  after  an 
operation,  so  that  they  might  begin  to  read 
h and  forget  some  of  their  pains  if  pos- 


sible. In  some  cases  the  patient  would 
choose  the  author  or  the  subject  before  go- 
ing thru  his  ordeal. 

The  popular  periodicals  play  a great 
part  in  this  work  with  the  soldiers.  Those 
most  in  demand  are  The  Strand , The 
Windsor , The  Red,  Pearson's,  The  Wide 
World,  and  of  course  John  Bull,  which  the 
average  soldier  looks  upon  as  a sort  of 
gospel.  New'  arrivals  from  the  trenches 
are  cheered  up  at  once  by  the  very  sight 
of  the  well-known  cover,  says  Miss  Har- 
raden.  Even  if  too  ill  to  read  it,  they  like 
to  have  it  near  them,  ready  for  the  mo- 
ment when  returning  strength  gives  them 
the  incentive  to  take  a glance  at  some  of 
its  pages. 

Some  of  the  soldiers  have  decided  pre- 
dilections for  particular  magazines  and 
will  not  look  at  any  but  their  pet  ones. 
Miss  Harraden  tells  of  one  man  who  con- 
fined himse.lf  entirely  to  Blackwood's  and 
preferred  a back  number  of  that  to  the 
current  number  of  any  other  upstart  rival. 
Another  was  interested  only  in  the  Review 
of  Reviews,  and  a third  remained  loyal  to 
the  Nineteenth  Century.  “Others  have 
asked  only  for  wretched  little  rags  which 
one  would  wish  to  see  perish  off  the  face 
of  the  earth.  But  as  time  has  gone  on, 
these  have  been  less  and  less  asked  for 
and  their  place  has  been  gradually  taken 
by  the  Sphere,  the  Graphic,  the  Tatler,  the 
Illustrated  London  News,  and  the  Sketch, 
— another  instance  of  a better  class  of 
literature  being  welcomed  and  accepted  if 
put  within  easy  reach.  In  our  case  this 
has  been  made  continuously  possible  by 
friends  who  have  given  subscriptions  for 
both  monthly  and  weekly  numbers,  and  by 
others  who  send  in  their  back  numbers  in 
batches,  and  by  the  publishers,  who  never 
fail  us.” 

The  experience  in  the  matter  of  book 
selection  at  the  Military  Hospital  bears 
out  that  of  the  secretaries  of  the  War  Li- 
brary. It  was  found  necessary  to  invest  in 
a large  number  of  detective  stories,  and  of 
books  by  Charles  Garvice,  Oppenheim 
and  Nat  Gould.  A certain  type  of  man 
would  be  satisfied  with  nothing  but  Nat 
Gould.  No  matter  how  badly  off  he  was, 
the  suggestion  of  a book  by  Nat  Gould 


21 


would  bring  a smile  to  his  face.  Miss 
Harraden  says  that  she  has  often  heard 
the  whispered  words:  “A  Nat  Gould — 
ready  for  when  I’m  betfer.,, 

But  if  one  man  were  reading  Nat 
Gould’s  “Jockey  Jack” — a great  favorite — 
the  man  in  the  next  bed  might  just  as  likely 
as  not  be  reading  Shakespeare,  or  the  “Pil- 
grim’s progress,”  or  Shelley,  or  Meredith, 
or  Conrad,  or  a volume  of  the  Everyman’s 
Encyclopaedia  which  was  contributed  by 
Mr.  Dent  on  request.  A subscription  to 
Mudie’s  helped  out  a great  deal. 

Curiosity  prompted  an  inquiry  as  to  why 
a certain  reader  who  seemed  most  unprom- 
ising should  ask  for  “The  last  days  of 
Pompeii.”  It  turned  out  that  he  had  seen 
the  story  in  a picture  theatre.  He  became 
literally  riveted  to  the  book  until  he  had 
finished  it  and  then  he  passed  it  on  to  his 
neighbor  as  a real  find.  Another  soldier 
who  had  been  introduced  thru  filmland  to 
“Much  ado  about  nothing”  asked  for  the 
book,  which  was  the  first  of  several  vol- 
umes of  Shakespeare  to  go  to  his  bedside. 

Altho  the  librarians  never  attempted  to 
force  good  books  on  the  soldiers,  they  took 
pains  to  have  them  within  reach.  They 
found  that  when  the  men  once  began  on  a 
better  class  of  literature  they  did  not 
ordinarily  return  to  the  old  stuff,  which 
had  formerly  constituted  their  whole  range 
of  reading.  Miss  Harraden  believes  that 
the  average  soldier  reads  rubbish  because 
he  has  had  no  one  to  tell  him  what  to  read. 
Robert  Louis  Stevenson  has  lifted  many 
of  the  patients  in  this  hospital  to  a higher 
plane  of  reading,  from  which  he  has 
looked  down  with  something  like  scorn  on 
his  former  favorites.  In  more  ways  than 
one,  “Treasure  Island”  has  been  a dis- 
covery for  the  soldiers,  and  an  unspeak- 
able boon  to  the  librarians. 

One  day  the  librarians  were  asked  for 
a particular  book  on  high  explosives.  They 
hesitated  about  spending  eighteen  shill- 
ings to  meet  a single  request,  but  on  re- 
ferring the  matter  to  the  doctor  in  charge 
they  were  told  to  go  ahead  and  buy  not 
only  that  but  any  other  special  books  that 
seemed  to  be  wanted.  This  suggested  the 
idea  of  finding  out  just  what  special  sub- 
jects the  men  were  interested  in,  what  their 


occupations  had  been  before  the  war,  what 
their  plans  for  the  future  were.  Thence- 
forth the  work  of  the  librarians  became 
tenfold  more  interesting.  To  a certain 
extent  it  became  constructive  inasmuch 
as  it  was  helping  to  equip  the  men  for  their 
return  to  active  life  when  they  should  be 
taking  up  some  particular  art  or  craft  as 
a means  of  livelihood. 

In  came  requests  for  books  on  aero- 
planes; architecture;  cabinet  making  and 
old  furniture;  chemistry,  organic  and  in- 
organic; coal  mining;  drawing  and  paint- 
ing; electricity;  engineering  in  its  various 
branches;  fish  curing;  gardening  and 
forestry;  languages;  meteorology;  music; 
paper  making;  printing;  submarines; 
veterinary  medicine;  violin  making,  and 
so  on.  The  soldier  who  asked  for  the  book 
on  fish  curing  was  from  Nova  Scotia,  and 
fish  curing  was  his  father’s  business.  The 
son  wanted  to  learn  the  English  method 
and  gain  all  the  information  he  could 
about  the  subject  while  in  England,  before 
he  was  sent  back  home.  A book  on  Shef- 
field plate  was  lent  to  the  hospital  library 
by  an  antiquary  and  proved  to  be  a veri- 
table godsend  to  a crippled  soldier  who  had 
been  a second-hand  dealer  before  the  war 
and  who  considered  it  a rare  chance  that 
had  thrown  that  book  in  his  way.  He  made 
copious  notes  from  it  which  he  said  would 
be  invaluable  to  him  afterwards. 

The  New  Zealanders  and  Australians 
are  always  keen  on  books  about'  England. 
They  ask  also  for  their  own  poets  and  for 
Bushranger  stories. 

The  men  who  will  read  nothing  but  good 
literature  are  by  no  means  a negligible 
quantity.  Shakespeare  has  his  ardent  de- 
votees in  this  hospital.  Current  books 
which  have  aroused  public  interest  were 
generously  provided  by  the  publishers.  An 
endeavor  was  made  to  supply  not  only 
standard  works,  but  books  of  the  moment 
bearing  on  the  war.  Books  on  aeroplanes, 
submarines  and  wireless  telegraphy  were 
much  in  demand  even  before  special  at- 
tention was  paid  to  technical  subjects. 
Books  dealing  with  wild  animals  and  their 
habits  are  always  great  favorites. 

“Our  experiences,”  concludes  Miss  Har- 
raden, “have  tended  to  show  that  a library 


22 


department'  organized  and  run  by  people 
who  have  some  knowledge  of  books  might 
prove  to  be  a useful  asset  in  any  hospital, 
both  military  and  civil,  and  be  the  means 
of  affording  not  only  amusement  and  dis- 
traction, but  even  definite  education,  in- 
duced of  course,  not  insisted  on.  To  ob- 
tain satisfactory  results  it  would  seem, 
however,  that  even  a good  and  carefully 
chosen  collection  of  books  of  all  kinds  does 
not  suffice.  In  addition,  an  official  libra- 
rian is  needed  who  will  supply  the  initia- 
tive, which  in  the  circumstances  is  of 
necessity  lacking,  and  whose  duty  it  is  to 
visit  the  wards,  study  the  temperaments, 
inclinations,  and  possibilities  of  the  pa- 
tients and  thus  find  out  by  direct  personal 
intercourse  what  will  arouse,  help,  stimu- 
late, lift — and  heal.” 

6.  PICTURES  AND  POETRY 

After  a Y.  M.  C.  A.  service  on  a Sunday 
morning  at  the  front  not'  long  ago,  an 
officer  who  evidently  had  been  thinking 
along  some  special  lines  as  he  sat  with  his 
men,  remarked:  “Do  you  know,  this  hour 
has  been  a very  wonderful  one  for  me ! It 
isn’t  that  the  service  itself  has  moved  me 
in  any  particular  way,  but  as  I took  my 
place  my  eye  fell  on  that  picture.  It  took 
me  back  to  the  nursery  at  home,  and  all 
the  while  I have  been  in  this  hut  the  mem- 
ories of  childhood  and  the  sanctities  of 
home  have  been  calling  in  my  heart.”  The 
picture  that  made  such  a deep  impression 
was  an  ordinary  print  of  Millais’ 
“Bubbles.” 

The  idea  of  supplying  pictures  for  the 
soldiers  is  probably  a new  one  even  to  the 
people  who  are  thinking  about  the  welfare 
and  comfort  of  the  men  at  the  front.  But 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  authorities  are  anxious  to 
have  every  hut,  barn,  cellar  and  dug-out 
that  they  have,  suggest  thoughts  of  home 
to  the  men  who  are  using  them.  They 
want  to  have  good  pictures  in  their  “Quiet 
Rooms,”  knowing  the  silent  ministry  of 
such  furnishings  upon  all  who  spend  a few 
minutes  there  in  reading  or  meditation. 
They  would  also  like  to  have  pictures  to 
give  the  men  to  put  up  in  their  own  billets, 
messes  and  dug-outs. 

In  their  printed  appeal  for  support  of 


this  special  work,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  says 
that:  “The  display  of  crude  or  objection- 
able pictures  has  increased  of  late,  chiefly 
because  in  many  places  there  is  little  or 
nothing  else  to  be  had.  If  you  could  spend 
a single  day  amidst  the  desolation  and 
monotony  of  a modern  battlefield,  or  out 
in  the  wastes  of  sand  where  our  armies 
are  to  be  found  in  Egypt  or  Mesopotamia, 
you  would  understand  why  any  bit  of 
color,  anything  with  human  life  in  it,  is 
so  eagerly  seized  upon  by  a soldier.  It 
keeps  his  imagination  alive.  He  finds  it  a 
refuge  from  sheer  mental  and  spiritual 
shipwreck.  That  is  another  reason  why 
we  should  send  him  the  best,  and  plenty 
of  it.  We  are  making  a great  effort  to 
send  out  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  cartoons, 
color  prints,  black-and-white  drawings, 
and  half-tone  reproductions  for  the  deco- 
ration of  each  center  where  we  are  at 
work.  We  hope  also  for  a large  reserve 
from  which  to  supply  every  man  who 
would  like  a picture  or  two  for  himself. 
The  Challenge  newspaper  has  for  some 
time  been  attempting  to  meet  this  demand 
thru  the  Chaplain’s  department  and  will 
continue  to  do  so.  We  are  working  in 
close  touch,  especially  as  regards  the  pur- 
chasing of  prints.” 

Artists,  curators  of  art  galleries,  heads 
of  picture-publishing  firms,  editors  and 
proprietors  of  popular  illustrated  week- 
lies, chiefs  of  the  poster  departments  of 
railways  and  shipping  lines,  and  many 
friends  in  various  walks  of  life  are  co- 
operating with  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  authorities. 
But  the  .leaders  are  asking  those  interested 
to  organize  a collection  among  their  per- 
sonal friends  or  get  together  an  influential 
group  of  people  for  a thoro  canvass  of  their 
locality.  They  have  been  offered  greatly 
reduced  rates  by  firms  in  the  trade,  and 
are  therefore  able  to  spend  money  to  much 
greater  advantage  than  the  private  pur- 
chaser. It  is  estimated  that'  it  will  cost 
about  £4  to  furnish  a hut  with  suitable 
pictures.  Unframed  pictures  are  best,  and 
colored  ones  are  preferred  to  black  and 
white,  tho  both  are  needed.  Before  send- 
ing in  prints,  it  is  requested  that'  a .list  of 
those  proposed  for  sending  be  submitted 
so  that  the  authorities  can  see  whether 
they  are  suitable  or  not. 


23 


The  regular  sets  of  pictures  that  are 
being  sent  out  include  drawings  of  ani- 
mals, coaching  and  hunting  scenes,  garden, 
woodland,  countryside,  seascape  and  land- 
scape drawings,  figure  studies,  heads, 
studies  of  children,  series  of  famous  gal- 
lery pictures,  humorous  prints,  Peter  Pan, 
Pickwick  scenes,  Harrison  Fisher  prints, 
The  Hundred  Best  Pictures,  and  other 
portfolios.  Good  pictures  from  the  art 
monthlies,  and  supplements  to  Christmas 
numbers  of  well-known  periodicals  are 
acceptable.  Small  pictures  are  useful  for 
dug-outs  and  billets  while  larger  ones 
serve  for  huts  and  “Quiet  Rooms." 
Classical  or  modern  pictures  on  religious 
subjects  are  much  in  demand.  “In  fact," 
ends  the  appeal,  “we  need  everything  that 
is  really  good  of  its  kind  and  that  will  re- 
mind men  of  the  home  and  the  homeland 
(whether  Britain  or  the  Dominions),  of 
the  ideals  and  traditions  inseparable  from 
our  nation  and  its  history,  of  chivalry  and 
religious,  devotion,  and  certainly  every- 
thing that  will  bring  a smile  to  their  faces 
and  wholesome  laughter  to  their  lips.” 

Mr.  C.  Lewis  Hind,  the  art'  critic,  in  his 
book  “The  soldier  boy"  gives  an  incident 
which  demonstrates  the  eloquence  and  in- 
spiration of  a good  picture.  A young  mu- 
sician, now  a flight  sub-lieutenant  in  the 
Royal  Navy,  is  described  as  at  home  on 
leave,  sitting  in  his  London  study,  gazing 
at  a large  photograph  of  Rembrandt’s  “Pol- 
ish rider" — “that  unforgettable  picture,  a 
warrior  riding  forth  thru  a romantic  land- 
scape, but  the  mission  of  this  rider  is  born 
of  the  spirit,  not  of  the  flesh : he  rides  forth 
for  right,  not  for  might."  “That  picture 
sustains  me,"  said  the  musician-soldier. 
“I  return  here  for  another  look  at  it.  Its 
message  cannot  fade.  This  war  has  taught 
me  that  a picture  can  have  the  essence  of 
immortality  and  can  help  us  to  see  light 
beyond  the  blackness  of  the  moment." 

Mr.  Hind  writes  of  another  soldier  who 
would  willingly  have  been  a preacher- 
painter,  but  who  had  no  talent.  He  had 
made  a laborious  copy  of  Sic  transit  gloria 
mundi  by  Watts,  and  when  chided  for 
cherishing  so  sad  a theme  he  said  “That 
picture  is  a reminder  to  me  of  the  Undy- 
ing Things."  He,  himself  died  later  a 


gallant  death  for  his  country.  When  Hind 
went  to  pay  a visit’  of  condolence  to  the 
lad’s  mother  he  visited  the  studio  alone. 
Looking  at  the  shrouded  figure  of  the  dead 
warrior  in  Watt’s  picture  he  thought  of  his 
friend  beneath  French  soil.  Death 
seemed  hateful;  life  but  a horrid  game  of 
chance.  In  the  gathering  twilight  the  gray 
picture  grew  grayer.  “Why  did  he  like 
it?”  he  murmured.  From  the  presence  at 
his  side,  felt  rather  than  seen,  came  the 
answer : “Read  the  painted  words  above 
the  warrior" : 

What  I spent  I had 

What  I saved  I lost 

What  I gave  I have. 

To  those  who  have  not  looked  into  the 
matter,  poetry  would  seem  to  have  as  little 
place  at  the  front  as  pictures.  But  in  the 
New  Republic  for  November  25,  1916, 
James  Norman  Hall  writes  of  “Poetry 
Under  the  Fire  Test"  and  in  this  connection 
recounts  certain  experiences  of  an  old 
classmate  of  his,  Mason  by  name,  who  had 
joined  the  British  Army  and  had  gone  to 
the  front. 

Mason  tells  of  his  return  to  the  first  line 
about  two  o’clock  in  the  morning  of  a 
rainy  autumn  day.  His  way  led  him  thru 
an  old  communication  trench  nearly  a foot 
deep  in  water.  He  fell  into  a short  sap 
leading  off  from  the  french.  It  looked  like 
the  entrance  to  a dug-out.  Between  the 
shell  explosions  he  heard  voices.  Pausing 
tor  a moment  to  listen  he  discovered  that 
some  one  was  reading  aloud.  These  were 
the  words : 

Before  the  starry  threshold  of  Jove’s  court 
My  mansion  is,  where  those  immortal  shapes 
Of  bright  aerial  spirits  live  insphered 
In  regions  mild,  of  calm  and  serene  air; 
Above  the  smoke  and  stir  of  this  dim  spot 
Which  men  call  earth,  and  with  low-thoughted 
care, 

Confined  and  pestered  in  this  pinfold  here, 
Strive  to  keep  up  a frail  and  feverish  being 
Unmindful  of  the  crown  which  virtue  gives 
After  this  mortal  change,  to  her  true  servants 
Among  the  enthroned  gods  on  sainted  seats. 

Poetry ! “Comus" ! At  such  an  hour 
and  under  such  conditions ! Mason  con- 
fessed that  the  circumstance  so  affected 
him  that  he  began  to  cry  like  a baby.  But 
in  his  own  words:  “I  cried  for  pure  joy. 


24 


You  say  that  you  would  want  to  forget 
that  there  was  such  a thing  as  beauty  in 
the  world.  Well,  I had  forgotten.  My 
old  life  before  the  war  was  like  a cast-off 
garment  which  I had  forgotten  that  I had 
ever  owned.  The  life  of  soldiering,  of 
killing  and  being  killed,  of  digging 
trenches  and  graves,  seemed  to  have  been 
going  on  forever.  Then,  in  a moment — 
how  is  one  to  tell  of  such  an  awakening? — 
I felt  as  the  ancient  mariner  must  have 
felt  when  the  body  of  the  albatross  slipped 
from  his  neck  and  fell — how  does  it  go? — 
'like  lead  into  the  sea.’  What  I am  trying 
to  make  clear  to  you  is  this : without 
realizing  it,  I had  lost  my  belief  in  all 
beauty.  During  all  those  months  I was 
vaguely  aware  of  the  lack  of  something, 
but'  I didn’t  know  what  it  was.  It  is  im- 
possible to  think  of  that  time  without  a 
shudder. 

“This  adventure  marked  the  beginning 
of  what  I think  I may  call  a new  epoch  in 
my  trench  experiences.  The  seasons  of 
fearful  depression  which  I used  to  have 
were  past  and  gone,  altho  the  life  was  just 
as  wretched  as  before.  At  night,  as  I 
stood  on  sentry,  I would  recall  the  frag- 
ments of  poems  I knew  in  old  days.  I 
wrote  immediately  to  friends  in  London, 
who  prepared  for  me  a little  trench  an- 
thology of  the  poems  I liked  best.  You 
have  no  idea  what  a comfort  they  have 
been.  I’ve  put  them  thru  the  fire  test,  and 
they  have  withstood  it  splendidly.” 

Hall  expressed  an  interest  as  to  the 
selection,  and  his  friend  handed  him  a 
booklet  in  soiled  paper  covers.  Loose 
leaves  from  books  of  various  sizes  had 
been  sewn  together  into  a little  volume 
which  went  easily  into  the  pocket  of  the 
soldier’s  tunic.  Among  others  there  were 
“Kubla  Khan,”  “Comus,”  “The  Ode  on 
the  Intimations  of  Immortality,”  all  of 
Keats’s  odes  and  “The  eve  of  St.  Agnes,” 
Shelley’s  “Alastor,”  Henley’s  “London  vol- 
untaries,” and  some  selections  from  the 
nineteenth  century  sonnets  edited  by 
William  Sharp.  Hall  expressed  surprise 
at’  seeing  several  poems  by  Francis  Thomp- 
son, whom  he  had  never  thought  of  as  a 
soldier’s  poet,  and  he  asked  his  friend  why 
he  was  included.  By  way  of  answer  Mason 


took  the  volume  and  read  the  first  stanza 

of  “The  Poppy.” 

Heaven  set  lip  to  earth’s  bosom  bare 
And  left  the  flushed  print  in  a poppy,  there. 
Like  a yawn  of  fire  from  the  grass  it  came 
And  the  hot  wind  fanned  it  to  flapping  flame. 

“We  have  no  need  of  war  verse  in  the 
trenches,”  said  Mason.  “What  we  do  need 
is  something  which  will  take  our  minds  off 
the  horrors  of  modern  warfare,  after  the 
strain  is  relaxed.” 

“Do  you  mean  to  say  that  all  of  you 
fellows  out'  there  are  finding  solace  in 
poetry?” 

“Certainly  not.  I merely  give  you  my 
own  experience.  But  you  would  be  sur- 
prised if  you  knew  how  many  other  men 
do  find  it  essential.  Since  that  night  in 
the  communication  trench  I’ve  been 
making  inquiries,  very  cautiously  of 
course,  for  it  would  never  do  to  let  some 
of  the  men  know  that  one  has  such 
aesthetic  tastes.  Recently,  I met  a ser- 
geant major  whose  experience,  slight  as 
it  was,  bears  out  splendidly  this  one  of 
mine.  Once,  he  said,  when  he  believed 
that  he  was  on  the  point  of  a nervous 
break-down,  he  remembered  suddenly  two 
lines  from  Shakespeare: 

Night’s  candles  are  burnt  out,  and  jocund  Day 
Stands  tiptoe  on  the  misty  -mountain  tops. 

“I  may  have  quoted  incorrectly,  altho  I 
think  I have  it  straight.  The  effect  upon 
him,  he  said,  was  really  miraculous.  His 
battalion  had  been  in  the  first  line  con- 
tinuously, for  two  weeks,  and  had  suffered 
heavy  casualties.  At  night  every  sandbag 
in  the  parapet  had  appeared  to  be  a dis- 
torted human  countenance.  The  men  who 
are  killed  in  the  trench  are  placed  on  the 
parapets,  you  know,  until  there  is  an  op- 
portunity to  bury  them.  He  was  in  a 
bad  way,  but  those  two  lines  saved  him. 
They  called  to  his  mind  a picture  of  some 
place  which  he  was  sure  that  he  had  never 
seen,  but  one  of  such  great  beauty  that  he 
forgot  the  horrors  of  the  trenches.  They 
became  a talisman  to  him,  offering  just 
the  relief  he  needed  in  times  of  great 
mental  strain.  Another  fellow,  a man  of 
my  own  company,  found  this  relief  by  re- 
peating Hood’s  sonnet  on  Silence.  You 
remember  it? 


25 


There  is  a silence  where  hath  been  no  sound, 
There  is  a silence  where  no  sound  may  be; 
In  the  cold  grave,  under  the  deep,  deep  sea, 
Or  in  wide  desert  where  no  life  is  found. 

“It’s  one  of  the  finest  sonnets  in  the 
language,  to  my  way  of  thinking;  but  im- 
agine a soldier  repeating  those  lines  to 
himself,  under  shell  fire!  Odd,  isn’t  it?” 

“Odd?  That'  is  hardly  the  word.  If 
anyone  but  you  had  told  me  of  it,  I should 
have  said  it  was  extremely  improbable.” 

“My  dear  fellow,  that  is  simply  because 
you  have  never  had  occasion  to  put  poetry 
to  the  test  of  fire.  Come  out  and  join  us! 
It  is  worth  all  the  hazards  to  discover  for 
one’s  self  that  Beauty  is  Truth,  Truth 
Beauty.  Yes,”  he  added,  “by  Jove!  it  is 
worth  it!” 

As  further  evidence  that  poetry  has  stood 
the  fire  test  let  me  quote  a few  passages 
from  Lieutenant  Gillespie’s  “Letters  from 
Flanders,”  referred  to  more  fully  in  another 
section  of  this  paper.  In  one  of  his  letters 
home  he  speaks  of  “a  famous  epitaph  of 
Plato  on  a friend  who  died  young,  which 
plays  on  the  contrast  between  the  morning 
and  the  evening  star.  Shelley  has  trans- 
lated it,  so  far  as  I can  remember: 

Thou  wast  the  morning  star  among  the 
living 

Ere  thy  pure  light  had  fled, 

Now  thou  art  gone,  thou  art  as  Hesperus 
giving 

New  Splendour  to  the  dead. — 
but  the  Greek  is  simpler  and  better.” 

On  the  eve  of  the  attack  in  which  Gil- 
lespie was  killed  he  wrote  his  father  a long 
letter  ending  thus : “It  will  be  a great  fight, 
and  even  when  I think  of  you,  I would  not 
wish  to  be  out  of  this.  You  remember 
Wordsworth’s  ‘Happy  Warrior’ : 

Who  if  he  be  called  upon  to  face 
Some  awful  moment  to  which  heaven  has 
joined 

Great  issues,  good  or  bad,  for  human  kind, 

Is  happy  as  a lover,  and  is  attired. 

With  sudden  brightness  like  a man  inspired. 

“I  never  could  be  all  that  a happy  warrior 
should  be,  but  it  will  please  you  to  know 
that  I am  very  happy,  and  whatever  hap- 
pens, you  will  remember  that.” 

7.  LETTERS  FROM  THE  FRONT 

Wagstaffe  in  Ian  Hay’s  “First  Hundred 
Thousand”  looks  over  the  list  of  Bobby’s 
outfit  and  says  “If  you  find  you  still  have 


a pound  or  so  in  hand,  add  a few  books — 
something  to  fall  back  on,  in  case  supplies 
fail.  Personally,  I’m  taking  ‘Vanity  Fair’ 
and  ‘Pickwick.’  But  then,  I’m  old- 
fashioned.” 

The  varying  literary  tastes  of  the  men 
at  the  front  are  brought  out  by  H.  G. 
Wells  in  “Mr.  Britling.”  Hugh  writes  to 
his  father  about  life  in  the  trenches: 

“We  read,  of  course.  But  there  never 
c uld  be  a library  here  big  enough  to  keep  us 
going.  We  can  do  with  all  sorts  of  books, 
but  I don’t  think  the  ordinary  sensational 
novel  is  quite  the  catch  it  was  for  a lot  of 
them  in  peace  time.  Some  break  towards 
serious  reading  in  the  oddest  fashion.  Old 
Park,  for  example,  says  he  wants  books  you 
can  chew;  he  is  reading  a cheap  edition  of 
‘The  origin  of  species.’  He  used  to  regard 
Florence  Warden  and  William  Le  Queux  as 
the  supreme  delights  of  print.  I wish  you 
could  send  him  Metchnikoff’s  ‘Nature  of  Man’ 
or  Pearson’s  ‘Ethics  of  Free  Thought.’  I feel 
I am  building  up  his  tender  mind.  Not  for 
me  tho,  Daddy.  Nothing  of  that  sort  for  me. 
These  things  take  people  differently.  What  I 
want  here  is  literary  opium.  I want  some- 
thing about  fauns  and  nymphs  in  broad  low 
glades.  I would  like  to  read  Spenser's 
‘Faerie  Queene.’  I don’t  think  I have  read  it, 
and  yet  I have  a very  distinct  impression  of 
knights  and  dragons  and  sorcerers  and  wicked 
magic  ladies  moving  thru  a sort  of  Pre- 
Raphaelite  tapestry  scenery — only  with  a light 
on  them.  I could  do  with  some  Hewlett  of 
the  ‘Forest  Lovers’  kind.  Or  with  Joseph  Con- 
rad in  his  Kew  Palm-house  mood.  And  there 
is  a book,  I once  looked  into  it  at  a man’s 
room  in  London ; I don’t  know  the  title,  but 
it  was  by  Richard  Garnett,  and  it  was  all 
about  gods  who  were  in  reduced  circumstances 
but  amidst  sunny  picturesque  scenery — scenery 
without  steel,  or  poles,  or  wire — a thing  af- 
ter the  manner  of  Heine’s  ‘Florentine  Nights.’ 
Any  book  about  Greek  gods  would  be  wel- 
come, anything  about  temples  of  ivory-colored 
stone  and  purple  seas,  red  caps,  chests  of 
jewels,  and  lizards  in  the  sun.  I wish  there 
was  another  ‘Thais.’  The  men  here  are  get- 
ting a kind  of  newspaper  sheet  of  literature 
scraps  called  The  Tunes  Broadsheets.  Snip- 
pets, but  mostly  from  good  stuff.  They’re 
small  enough  to  stir  the  appetite,  but  not  to 
satisfy  it.  Rather  an  irritant — and  one  wants 
no  irritant.  I used  to  imagine  reading  was 
meant  to  be  a stimulant.  Out  here  it  has  to 
be  an  anodyne.” 

The  general  tenor  of  this  fictitious  letter 
is  supported  by  the  real  letters  of  an 
American  member  of  the  Foreign  Legion: 
Henry  Weston  Farnsworth,  who  died  from 
wounds  received  in  battle,  September, 


26 


1915*  He  wrote  to  his  father  that  he  had 
not  yet  finished  Cramb,  but  could  see  how 
well  written  it  was.  “I  don’t  see  why  it 
makes  the  Germans  any  more  understand- 
able to  you.  It,  as  far  as  I have  gone, 
draws  them  as  maddened  and  blinded  by 
jealousy.  I wish  Cramb  could  have  lived 
to  read  how  the  English  and  French  are 
fighting.” 

To  his  brother  he  confided:  “Warm 
things  are  nice  to  have  and  books  are 
interesting  to  read,  that  is  granted.  But 
if  you  come  in  from  four  hours’  sentinel 
duty  in  a freezing  rain,  with  mud  up  to 
your  ankles,  you  do  not  want  to  change 
your  socks  (you  go  out  again  in  an  hour) 
and  read  a book  on  German  thought.  You 
want  a smoke  and  a drink  of  hot  rum. 
I say  this  because  several  times  I have 
been  notified  that  there  were  packages  for 
me  at  the  paymaster’s  office.  To  go  there 
hoping  for  such  things,  and  receive  a dry 
book  and  a clean  pair  of  socks  has  been 
known  to  raise  the  most  dreadful  pro- 
fanity. Don’t  dwell  on  this.  It’s  only 
amusing  at  bottom.”  He  says  that  “the 
only  kick  he  has  about  mail”  is  that  Life 
which  he  had  much  enjoyed,  had  stopped 
coming.  He  read  Charles  Lamb,  “Pick- 
wick,” Plutarch,  a deal  of  cheap  French 
novels,  and  “War  and  Peace”  over  again, 
which  he  hopes  his  mother  will  re-read.  In 
his  opinion,  Tolstoi,  even  more  than  Stend- 
hal arrives  at  complete  expression  of  mil- 
itary life.  He  asks  his  people  to  send  him 
from  time  to  time  any  novel,  either  in 
French  or  English,  that  they  may  find 
interesting.  “Books  are  too  heavy  to 
carry  when  on  the  move.  The  state  of  the 
German  mind,  Plato,  or  Kant,  are  not  nec- 
essary for  the  moment,  and  I have  read 
Milton,  Shakespeare,  and  Dante.”  In  one 
letter,  written  as  they  were  momentarily 
expecting  to  be  called  into  action,  he  notes 
that  his  friend  is  very  calm,  and  is  reading 
the  Weekly  Dimes,  including  the  adver- 
tisements. 

Another  Legionnaire  and  contemporary 
of  Farnsworth  at  Harvard,  Victor  Chap- 
man, tho  not  essentially  a bookish  man,  has 
left  in  his  letters*  evidence  of  the  effect 

* Victor  Chapman’s  letters  from  France,;  with 
memoir  by  John  Jay  Chapman.  New  York:  Mac- 
millan, 1917. 


that  reading  had  on  him  while  serving  in 
the  American  Aviation  Corps.  Under  date 
of  May  14,  1915,  he  writes:  “After  twen- 
ty minutes  the  shooting  lessened  and  we 
turned  to  other  things — I to  reading  Lamb, 
whom  I found  tedious  till  I hit  the  Dis- 
sertation on  Roast  Pig.”  A few  days  later 
he  “attacked  the  ‘Autocrat’,”  but  felt  he 
had  to  read  such  a lot  to  get  a little  nutri- 
tion that  he  thought  it  hardly  worth  while. 

A fellow  Legionnaire  says  that  Chapman 
“received  almost  all  the  Paris  newspapers 
and  magazines,  not  to  speak  of  novels  and 
volumes  of  poetry.  One  day  he  also  re- 
ceived a book  from  America.  Chapman 
undid  the  parcel,  and  buried  himself  in 
his  cabin;  when  he  came  out  some  hours 
later  he  was  joyful,  exuberant;  he  had 
read  at  a sitting  the  anti-German  book 
that  his  father  had  published  in  New  York 
to  enlighten  those  fellows  over  there.” 
The  book  was  the  one  entitled  “Deutsch- 
land fiber  Allies” ; or  “Germany  Speaks” ; a 
collection  of  the  utterances  of  representa- 
tive Germans  in  defense  of  the  war  policies 
of  the  Fatherland”  (New  York,  Putnam’s, 
1914). 

He  tells  his  father  that  he  thinks  the 
book  capital,  that  he  “had  seen  one  or  two 
of  those  fool  remarks,  but  not  by  any  means 
the  greater  part.  I hope  it  sells,  for  it 
shows  up  their  craziness  so  wonderfully 
well.  I have  been  reading  my  Galsworthy 
again;  a collection  of  English  verse  by  a 
Frenchman,  bad  as  a selection  of  verse,  but 
still  interesting;  a short  story  by  Alfred  de 
Vigny,  and  your  Homeric  Scenes.  Strange 
and  violent  ends  some  of  the  books  of  Frise 
have  come  to.  Outside  our  cabin  door  I 
found,  for  cleaning  the  gamelles,  the  pages 
of  the  Swiss  Family  Robinson  in  French; 
while  yesterday,  before  another  cabin,  I 
found  pages  of  Quentin  Durward,  also  in 
French.  British  authors  are  not  the  only 
sufferers,  however.  The  third  volume,  yet 
intact,  except  the  back  cover,  of  the  Medita- 
tions of  St.  Ignatius  is  placed  over  the 
stove  for  lighting  the  pipes.” 

In  other  letters  he  reports  a total  relaxa- 
tion from  war  and  the  like  by  reviewing  the 
Harvard  Dental  School  requirements  for 
admission  and  talking  over  examinations 
with  a comrade  who  thought  of  taking  up 
dentistry  when  he  was  thru  with  aviation. 


27 


He  says  that  he  relishes  the  New  York 
Tribunes  which  were  being  sent  him  fre- 
quently, adding  that  they  kept  him  a bit  in 
touch  with  America,  even  tho  they  were 
three  weeks  old  when  they  arrived. 

Personal  narratives  of  the  great  war  are 
rapidly  increasing  in  number.  Among  those 
most  interesting  in  connection  with  our 
present  theme  are  “Letters  from  Flanders, 
written  by  2nd  Lieut.  A.  D.  Gillespie, 
Argyll  and  Sutherland  Highlanders,  to  his 
home  people”  (London,  Smith,  Elder  & 
Co.  1916).  Gillespie  was  a Winchester 
College  and  Oxford  University  man  who 
was  studying  law  at  the  Inns  of  Court  when 
he  enlisted  in  August,  1914. 

He  writes  that  between  eating,  sleeping 
and  writing  he  can’t  find  much  time  to  read, 
but  he  manages  in  the  first  months  of  his 
service  to  get  thru  Dante’s  Inferno,  and 
asks  that  his  copy  of  Paradise  Lost  be  sent 
him  from  home,  together  with  Scott's 
“Bride  of  Lamme<rmoor”  or  any  other 
Scott  in  a cheap  edition — “in  fact  anything 
solid,  for  I don’t  think  sixpenny  novels 
would  go  down  so  well  at  present.  . 

A Sphere  or  an  Illustrated  [ London  News] 
would  be  interesting  to  me,  and  to  the  men 
afterwards.  ...  I have  got  H.  S. 
Merriman’s  ‘Velvet  glove’  to  read,  but  so 
far  I seem  to  have  been  busy  digging,  eating 
or  sleeping.  . . . [Merriman]  doesn’t 

perhaps  go  very  deep,  but  he  can  tell  a rat- 
tling good  story,  which  many  of  those  mod- 
ern psychological  novelists,  with  their  elab- 
orate analysis  of  character  and  of  sensa- 
tion, quite  fail  to  do.  Merriman 

talks  of  the  ‘siren  sound  of  the  bullet,  a 
sound  which  the  men,  when  they  have  once 
heard  it,  cannot  live  without;’  but  I don’t 
think  I shall  want  you  to  fire  volleys  under 
my  window  to  put  me  to  sleep  when  I get 
home. 

“I  wanted  to  get  some  French  newspapers, 
but  I could  only  find  an  old  Matin,  with  noth- 
ing in  it  except  translations  from  the  London 
papers  . . . 

“I  got  hold  of  a German  paper  yesterday; 
it  had  a short  account  of  a football  match  in 
Berlin,  so  did  a French  paper  of  one  in  Paris 
the  other  day.  But  what  interested  me  was  to 
notice  that  they  gave  very  fairly  and  accurate- 
ly the  British  Admiralty’s  report  of  one  day’s 
operations  in  the  Dardanelles,  except  that  they 
multiplied  the  number  of  our  dead  by  four.  I 
know  this  because  I happened  to  have  no- 
ticed the  figures;  and  so  had  another  subal- 


tern. That  is  just  typical  of  their  system  in  all 
their  reports.  They  tell  as  much  truth  as  they 
think  necessary  to  hide  their  lies — or,  rather, 
tell  as  many  lies  as  they  think  their  public  can 
reasonably  swallow.  . . . 

“I  have  got  hold  of  a book  of  Tolstoi’s 
stories.  There’s  something  very  charming 
about  them,  they  are  so  direct  and  simple ; and 
in  the  same  book  one  has  sketches  of  Sevas- 
topol during  the  siege, — curious  reading  just 
now,  when  we  are  doing  our  best  to  give  the 
Russians  what  we  fought  to  prevent  them  get- 
ting sixty  years  ago.  I once  read  them  before 
in  French,  and  I think  I’m  right  in  saying 
that  he  doesn’t  mention  the  British  once — it’s 
always  the  French,  and  yet  we  all  have  the 
habit  of  thinking  that  we  did  all  the  fighting 
in  the  Crimea.” 

At  another  time  he  writes : 

“I  wish  you  would  give  me  as  a birthday 
present,  Gibbon  in  Everyman’s.  Send  out  a 
couple  of  volumes  at  a time ; then  I can  get 
rid  of  them  as  I read  them.  For  even  though 
it  takes  time  and  men  and  ships  to  force  the 
Dardanelles,  I think  the  story  of  Constanti- 
nople will  be  taken  up  again  where  it  was  left 
in  1455- 

“The  Sphere  never  comes  now.  I don’t 
mind  for  myself,  because  I always  see  it  in 
the  mess,  but  if  you  are  ordering  it,  it  ought 
to  come,  and  the  men  might  like  to  see  it. 
Send  me  on  two  copies  of  Forbes-Mitchell’s 
‘Reminiscences  of  the  Indian  Mutiny,’  (Mac- 
millan’s one  shilling  series).  He  was  a ser- 
geant in  the  93rd,  and  I remember  that  at  Sun- 
derland two  copies  which  I gave  my  platoon 
were  very  popular.  . . . And  if  you  will 

give  it  to  me  for  a birthday  present,  I should 
like  to  read  a book  which  has  just  come  out, 
‘Ordeal  by  battle,’  by  F.  S.  Oliver;  he  used  to 
write  a good  deal  for  the  Round  Table, 
which,  by  the  way,  I have  not  seen  lately. 
Send  me  the  current  number  and  others  as 
they  come  out  ...  I used  to  take  it  regu- 
larly, but  I’m  afraid  I have  missed  several 
quarters  since  last  August.” 

The  anonymous  “Letters  of  a soldier, 
1914-1915.”  written  by  a French  artist 
to  his  mother,  and  translated  by  “V.  M.” 
(London,  Constable,  1917)  are  full  of 
references  to  the  influence  of  books  and 
reading  on  his  cultivated  mind.  The  fol- 
lowing extracts  show  how  he  at  least  car- 
ried out  the  injunction  of  an  eminent 
French  military  authority,  Colonel  Emile 
Manceau,  who  at  the  very  height  of  hostil- 
ities said:  “Let  us  read,  let  us  give  much 
time  to  reading.” 

Aug.  6,  1914.  What  we  miss  is  news ; there 
are  no  longer  any  papers  to  be  had  in  this 
town. 

Aug  26.  I was  made  happy  by  Maurice 
Barres’s  fine  article,  “VAigle  et  le  Rossignol.” 


28 


which  corresponds  in  every  detail  with  what 
I feel. 

Oct.  23.  I have  re-read  Barres’s  article, 
“ I’Aigle  et  le  Rossignol.”  It  is  still  as  beau- 
tiful, but  it  no  longer  seems  in  complete  har- 
mony. 

Oct.  28.  I am  glad  that  you  have  read 
Tolstoi:  he  also  took  part  in  war.  He  judged 
it;  he  accepted  its  teaching.  If  you  can 
glance  at  the  admirable  “War  and  Peace,” 
you  will  find  pictures  that  our  situation  re- 
calls. It  will  make  you  understand  the  liberty 
for  meditation  that  is  possible  to  a soldier 
who  desires  it. 

Sept.  21.  To  sleep  in  a ditch  full  of  water 
has  no  equivalent  in  Dante,  but  what  must 
be  said  of  the  awakening,  when  one  must 
watch  for  the  moment  to  kill  or  be  killed! 

Jan.  13,  1915.  I did  not  tell  you  enough 
what  pleasure  the  Revues  hebdomadaires 
gave  me.  I found  some  extracts  from  that 
speech  on  Lamartine  which  I am  passionately 
fond  of.  Circumstances  led  this  poet  to  give 
to  his  art  only  the  lowest  place.  Life  in  gem 
eral  closed  him  round,  imposing  on  his  great 
heart  a more  serious  and  immediate  task  than 
that  which  awaited  his  genius. 

Jan.  17.  What  surpasses  our  understand- 
ing (and  yet  what  is  only  natural)  is  that 
civilians  are  able  to  continue  their  normal 
life  while  we  are  in  torment.  I saw  in  the 
Cri  de  Paris,  which  drifted  as  far  as  here, 
a list  of  concert  programmes.  What  a con- 
trast ! However,  mother  dear,  the  essential 
thing  is  to  have  known  beauty  in  moments 
of  grace. 

Jan.  19.  I have  received  two  parcels ; the 
“ Chanson  de  Roland ” gives  me  infinite 
pleasure — particularly  the  Introduction,  treat- 
ing of  the  national  epic  and  of  the  Mahab- 
harata  which,  it  seems,  tells  of  the  fight  be- 
tween the  spirits  of  good  and  evil. 

Feb.  2.  I am  delighted  by  the  Reviews. 
In  an  admirable  article  on  Louis  Veuillot  I 
noticed  this  phrase : “O  my  God,  take  away 
my  despair  and  leave  my  grief !”  Yes,  we 
must  not  misunderstand  the  fruitful  lesson 
taught  by  grief,  and  if  I return  from  this  war 
it  will  most  certainly  be  with  a soul  formed 
and  enriched. 

I also  read  with  pleasure  the  lectures  on 
Moliere,  and  in  him,  as  elsewhere,  I have 
viewed  again  the  solitude  in  which  the  high- 
est souls  wander.  But  I owe  it  to  my  old 
sentimental  wounds  never  to  suffer  again  thru 
the  acts  of  others. 

Feb.  4.  Dear,  I was  reflecting  on  Tolstoi’s 
title  “War  and  Peace.”  I used  to  think  that 
he  wanted  to  express  the  antithesis  of  these 
two  states,  but  now  I ask  myself  if  he  did  not 
connect  these  two  contraries  in  one  and  the 
same  folly — if  the  fortunes  of  humanity, 
whether  at  war  or  at  peace,  were  not  equally 
a burden  to  his  mind. 

Feb.  6.  Mother  dear,  I am  living  over 
again  the  lovely  legend  of  Sarpedon ; and  that 


exquisite  flower  of  Greek  poetry  really  gives 
me  comfort.  If  you  will  read  this  passage 
of  the  Iliad  in  my  beautiful  translation  by 
Lecomte  de  l’lsle,  you  will  see  that  Zeus  ut- 
ters in  regard  to  destiny  certain  words  in 
which  the  divine  and  the  eternal  shine  out  as 
nobly  as  in  the  Christian  Passion.  He  suf- 
fers, and  his  fatherly  heart  undergoes  a long 
battle,  but  finally  he  permits  his  son  to  die 
and  Hypnos  and  Thanatos  are  sent  to  gather 
up  the  beloved  remains. 

Hypnos — that  is  Sleep.  To  think  that  I 
should  come  to  that,  I for  whom  every  wak- 
ing hour  was  a waking  joy,  I for  whom  every 
moment  was  a thrill  of  pride.  I catch  myself 
longing  for  the  escape  of  Sleep  from  the 
tumult  that  besets  me.  But  the  splendid 
Greek  optimism  shines  out  as  in  those  vases 
at  the  Louvre.  By  the  two,  Hypnos  and 
Thanatos,  Sarpedon  is  lifted  to  a life  beyond 
his  human  death;  and  assuredly  Sleep  and 
Death  do  wonderfully  magnify  and  continue 
our  mortal  fate. 

Thanatos — that  is  a mystery,  and  it  is  a 
terror  only  because  the  urgency  of  our  tran- 
sitory desires  makes  us  misconceive  the 
mystery.  But  read  over  again  the  great  peace- 
ful words  of  Maeterlinck  in  his  book  on 
death,  words  ringing  with  compassion  for 
our  fears  in  the  tremendous  passage  of 
mortality. 

March  3.  I have  been  stupefied  by  the  noise 
of  the  shells.  Think — from  the  French  side 
alone  forty  thousand  have  passed  over  our 
heads,  and  from  the  German  side  about  as 
many,  with  this  difference,  that  the  enemy 
shells  burst  right  upon  us.  For  my  own  part, 
I was  buried  by  three  305  shells  at  once,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  innumerable  shrapnel  going 
off  close  by.  You  may  gather  that  my  brain 
was  a good  deal  shaken.  And  now  I am 
reading.  I have  just  read  in  a magazine  an 
article  on  three  new  novels,  and  that  reading 
relieved  many  of  the  cares  of  battle. 

March  11.  I have  nothing  to  say  about  my 
life,  which  is  filled  up  with  manual  labor.  At 
moments  perhaps  some  image  appears,  some 
memory  rises.  I have  just  read  a fine  article  by 
Renan  on  the  origins  of  the  Bible.  I found 
it  in  a Revue  des  deux  mondes  of  1886.  If 
later  I can  remember  something  of  it,  I may 
be  able  to  put  my  very  scattered  notions  on 
that  matter  into  better  order. 

March  17.  The  other  day,  reading  an  old 
Revue  des  deux  mondes  of  1880,  I came  upon 
an  excellent  article  as  one  might  come  upon  a 
noble  palace  with  vaulted  roof  and  decorated 
walls.  It  was  on  Egypt,  and  was  signed 
Georges  Perrot. 

8.  THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  TRENCHES 

Living  his  uneventful  life  before  the  war, 
the  average  Englishman,  says  Donald 
Hankey,  could  hardly  be  said  to  possess 
a philosophy  at  all,  but  rather  a code  of 
honor  and  morals,  based  partly  on  tradition 


29 


and  partly  on  his  own  observation  of  the 
law  of  cause  and  effect  in  the  lives  of  his 
associates.  When  war  came  and  he  found 
himself  in  the  ranks,  he  discovered  that  his 
easy-going  philosophy  did  not  quite  fit  in 
with  the  new  demands  made  on  him.  So 
he  had  to  try  and  think  things  out.  But 
this  was  by  no  means  easy.  He  had  read 
very  little  that  was  of  any  help  to  him  now. 
He  could  remember  nothing  but  a few 
phrases  from  the  Bible,  some  verses  from 
Omar  Khayyam,  and  a sentence  or  two 
from  the  Latin  Syntax.  But  when  he  found 
himself  in  a support  trench,  heavily  shelled 
by  the  enemy,  Omar,  who  had  lived  before 
the  day  of  high  explosives,  was  of  little 
comfort,  and  “it  didn’t  seem  quite  playing 
the  game”  to  turn  to  the  Bible  now  after 
having  neglected  it  so  long.  Though  he 
could  not  have  defined  his  attitude  of  mind, 
he  wavered  between  fatalism  and  the  gos- 
pel of  the  “will  to  prevail”  and  was  near  to 
becoming  a disciple  of  Nietzsche. 

The  American  Bible  Society,  which  has 
had  experience  in  war-time  distribution  of 
the  Bible,  in  the  Mexican  War,  the  Civil 
War,  the  Russo-Japanese  War,  the  Spanish- 
American  War.  and  in  the  recent  disturb- 
ances on  the  Mexican  border,  is  now  hard 
at  work  supplying  the  troops  of  to-day. 
From  May  to  Sept.  15,  1917,  the  Society 
issued  650,000  copies  for  the  use  of  Ameri- 
can soldiers  and  sailors.  Most  of  these 
have  been  Testaments  and  single  books,  or 
“portions”  as  they  call  them,  meaning 
nothing  less  than  one  whole  book  of  the 
Bible.  The  society  has  orders  for  150,000 
more  Bibles,  Testaments  and  portions, 
which  are  being  issued  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible. The  two  chief  problems  before  the 
society  are  to  secure  the  necessary  funds 
and  to  meet  the  growing  demand.  There 
is  a rush  of  orders  from  many  widely  dif- 
ferent sources.  The  society’s  presses  have 
been  running  for  weeks  up  to  two  o’clock 
at  night. 

The  copies  already  issued  have  gone  put 
to  the  troops,  first  of  all  thru  the  nine  home 
agencies  of  the  society,  most  of  which  have 
made  special  efforts  to  distribute  them. 
Next  they  have  used  auxiliary  societies, 
such  as  the  Massachusetts  and  the  Mary- 
land Bible  Societies.  Then  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
with  whom  the  society  has  an  understand- 
ing, drew  very  largely  upon  its  resources. 


The  society  has  recently  agreed  to  furnish 
the  National  War  Council  of  the  Y.  M.  C. 
A.  one  million  Testaments  and  has  signed 
contracts  with  responsible  firms  for  the 
manufacture  of  these  books.  They  are  to 
be  delivered  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  free  of  all 
cost  on  condition  that  they  will  be  circulat- 
ed judiciously  among  the  soldiers  and  sail- 
ors. As  the  reserve  funds  of  the  society 
are  exhausted,  it  must  now  raise  more 
money  by  a special  campaign,  in  order  to 
cover  the  cost  of  the  books  already  issued, 
and  make  further  provision  for  future  is- 
sues if  the  war  continues  for  a long  period. 
The  society  appeals  for  at  least  $400,000 
for  these  purposes. 

The  directors  of  the  society  feel  that 
every  enlisted  man  in  the  Army  or  Navy 
ought  to  have  a Testament,  or  a Gospel,  or 
a whole  Bible  for  his  own  use.  Some  of 
the  men  are  glad  to  get  them  and  willing 
to  pay  for  them,  but  to  others  they  must  be 
given  free.  It  is  felt  that  the  best  way  to 
give  a soldier  a Bible  or  a Testament  is  to 
have  it  come  from  the  people  in  his  own 
home,  his  own  town,  or  his  own  church. 
They  should  see  that  he  gets  one  before  he 
leaves.  The  society  has  worked  thru  these 
channels,  and  so  has  supplied  a large  num- 
ber of  individuals,  churches,  Sunday  schools 
and  local  organizations.  The  Northeastern 
Department  of  the  Society’s  Atlantic  Agen- 
cy in  Pennsylvania  secured  $400  from  the 
churches  of  Scranton  with  which  to  buy 
Bibles  for  the  soldiers  going  from  that  cit> 
and  region.  For  the  special  use  of  the 
Maryland  troops,  the  Maryland  Bible  So- 
ciety ordered  10,000  copies  of  the  Scrip- 
tures with  a letter  inserted  from  President 
Wilson,  written  at  the  request  of  Dr. 
Goucher,  president  of  the  Maryland  Bible 
Society.  The  Massachusetts  Society  has 
had  a letter  from  the  governor  of  the  state 
inserted  in  its  books  and  the  New  York 
Bible  Society,  operating  in  New  York  City, 
has  distributed  25,000  Testaments  and  por- 
tions, with  a similar  letter  from  Colonel 
Roosevelt  inserted.  The  New  York  Society 
also  issues  a leaflet  containing  messages 
from  a score  of  eminent  men,  including 
Governor  Whitman,  General  Leonard 
Wood,  Rear-Admiral  Usher,  commending 
the  distribution. 

This  is  President  Wilson’s  admonition  to 
the  men  of  the  Army  and  Navy: 


30 


‘The  Bible  is  the  Word  of  Life.  I beg 
that  you  will  read  it  and  find  this  out  for 
yourselves — read,  not  little  snatches  here 
and  there,  but  long  passages  that  will  really 
be  the  road  to  the  heart  of  it. 

“You  will  not  only  find  it  full  of  real  men 
and  women,  but  also  of  things  you  have 
wondered  about  and  been  troubled  about  all 
your  life,  as  men  have  been  always,  and 
the  more  you  read  the  more  it  will  become 
plain  to  you  what  things  are  worth  while 
and  what  are  not;  what  things  make  men 
happy — loyalty,  right  dealings,  speaking  the 
truth,  readiness  to  give  everything  for  what 
they  think  their  duty,  and,  most  of  all,  the 
wish  that  they  may  have  the  real  approval 
of  the  Christ,  who  gave  everything  for 
them;  and  the  things  that  are  guaranteed 
to  make  men  unhappy — selfishness,  coward- 
ice, greed,  and  everything  that  is  low  and 
mean. 

“When  you  have  read  the  Bible  you  will 
know  that  it  is  the  Word  of  God,  because 
you  will  have  found  it  the  key  to  your  own 
heart,  your  own  happiness,  and  your  own 
duty.” 

A representative  of  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church  Mission  in  France  reports 
that  one  day  he  went  to  see  a poor,  un- 
fortunate soldier  in  jail  and  left  with  him 
a New  Testament.  The  following  week  he 
went  again  to  see  him.  He  was  asked  for 
copies  for  the  other  prisoners,  and  a Bible 
for  the  guard.  “It  was  really  impressive,” 
the  pastor  writes,  “to  see  that  poor  fellow 
behind  the  iron  gate  smiling  to  me  and 
sending  me  greetings  of  thanks  and  grati- 
tude.” 

Among  the  negroes  employed  there,  says 
the  same  pastor,  was  one  who  already  knew 
a little  of  the  New  Testament.  On  Easter 
Monday  he  was  seen  crying  like  a child. 
He  had  in  his  hand  the  book  which  had 
been  given  him  and  a letter. 

“What  have  you  got,  my  lad?”  asked  the 
pastor. 

“I  heard  wife  dead  in  Madagascar,  and 
me  read  the  New  Testament.” 

Another  negro  from  New  Caledonia, 
wrote : 

I ask  you  for  some  more  many  copies  of 
the  Gospel  for  comrades,  and  one  Saint 
Mathieu  for  me.  Me  doing  well, — and  you, 
my  pastor,  and  your  son,  and  your  daughter. 

I am  your  son  who  loves  you. 

Danis. 


A pastor  who  always  carries  with  him  a 
few  Testaments  for  distribution,  gave  one 
to  a young  soldier.  Months  later  the  pastor 
was  visiting  a hospital  and  was  accosted  by 
this  same  soldier,  who,  coming  up,  grasped 
him  by  the  hand  most  cordially  and  said : 

“You  do  not  know  me,  do  you?  But  I 
remember  you.  In  fact  I shall  never  forget 
you.  I owe  you  a debt  I can  never  repay. 
You  remember  that  some  months  ago  you 
were  distributing  New  Testaments  at  the 

station  of  X , and  you  gave  me  one. 

I put  it  in  my  bag,  and  when  I got  out  to 
the  front,  in  the  midst  of  the  awful  scenes 
of  destruction,  facing  danger  and  death, 
when  one  did  not  know  what  the  moment 
would  bring,  I found  time  to  read  the  little 
book  you  gave  me.  I am  a changed  man. 
And  it  is  your  little  book  that  has  done  it. 
I do  not  know  how  I can  ever  thank  you 
enough !” 

A soldier  of  the  Second  Pennsylvania 
Infantry  said  to  his  chaplain:  “This  is  not 
the  kind  of  Bible  I wanted.”  When  asked 
what  kind  he  did  want,  he  replied : “I  want 
an  Old  Testament  with  the  Lord’s  Prayer 
in  it.”  The  chaplain  told  him  that  it  had 
not  yet  been  published.  The  soldier  said 
he  thought  that  was  what  he  wanted.  “At 
least,  I want  the  part  of  the  Bible  that  I 
can  read  every  day.”  When  the  chaplain 
told  him  that  he  could  read  any  part  of  it 
daily,  the  soldier  was  not  satisfied.  He  said, 
“My  mother  used  to  read  me  one  part  of 
the  Bible  every  day  and  that  is  what  I 
want.”  The  chaplain  then  began  quoting 
the  23d  Psalm.  “That’s  it.  That’s  what  I 
want,”  he  cried. 

Certainly  in  the  wars  of  old  the  thunder 
of  the  Psalms  was  an  antidote  for  the 
thunder  of  battle.  In  the  Crusades,  there 
were  but  few  battles  against  the  Saracens 
in  which  there  was  not  sung  the  Venite 
of  the  95th  Psalm,  the  battle  cry  of  the 
Templars. 

In  1380,  when  the  Tartar  hordes  were 
advancing  on  Moscow,  Demetrius,  Grand 
Prince  of  Russia,  advanced  to  meet  the  in- 
vaders on  the  banks  of  the  Don.  After 
reading  the  46th  Psalm,  “God  is  our  refuge 
and  strength,”  he  plunged  into  the  fight 
which  ended  in  the  defeat  of  the  Tartars. 

The  Psalms  were  the  war-shout  of  John 
Sobieski.  From  them  the  Great  Armada 
took  its  motto.  They  were  the  watchwords 


31 


of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Cromwell,  the 
battle  hymn  of  the  Huguenots  and  the 
Cevennois. 

At  the  battle  of  Courtrai  in  1587  the 
Huguenots  chanted  the  24th  and  25th  verses 
of  the  118th  Psalm.  “The  cowards  are 
afraid/’  cried  a young  courtier  to  the  Due 
de  Joyeuse,  who  commanded  the  Roman 
Catholics ; “they  are  confessing  them- 
selves.” “Sire,”  said  a scarred  veteran, 
“when\  the  Huguenots  behave  thus,  they 
are  ready  to  fight  to  the  death.” 

In  Great  Britain’s  Civil  War  the  begin- 
ning of  a battle  was  frequently  heralded  by 
the  singing  of  Psalms.  This  was  true  of 
the  Battle  of  Marston  Moor.  As  his  troop- 
ers bore  the  body  of  John  Hampden  to  his 
grave,  they  chanted  the  90th  Psalm,  which 
since  1662  has  had  its  place  in  the  burial 
service  of  the  Prayer  Book. 

The  Psalms  were  the  battle  cry  of  the 
Huguenots  in  1704  when  Cavalier  won  a 


brilliant  victory.  It  was  with  the  singing 
of  the  48th  Psalm  that  Roland,  one  of  the 
Camisard  leaders,  routed  the  Royalists  at 
the  Bridge  of  Salindres  in  1709. 

Reading  and  believing  as  did  these  war- 
riors of  old,  produced  men  of  the  type  of 
Sir  Richard  Grenville,  who,  with  his  hun- 
dred men  and  his  little  forty-ton  frigate, 
fought  against  fifty-three  Spanish  ships  of 
war  manned  with  ten  thousand  men.  Sir 
Richard’s  last  words  have  been  lovingly  pre- 
served for  us  by  Sir  Walter  Raleigh: 

“Here  die  I,  Richard  Grenville,  with  a 
joyful  and  quiet  mind,  for  that  I have 
ended  my  life  as  a true  soldier  ought  to 
do,  that  hath  fought  for  his  country,  queen, 
religion,  and  honor.  Whereby  my  soul 
most  joyfully  departeth  out  of  this  body, 
and  shall ‘always  leave  behind  it  an  ever- 
lasting fame  of  a valiant  and  true  soldier 
that  hath  done  his  duty  as  he  was  bound 
to  do.” 


\ 


